BOOKS
The only thing worse than burning a book is not reading it.
There are zillions of books you can download to your Kindle, and I take advantage of that option myself. But reading a book in a library is not the same as reading a book on my Kindle. So I still go to my local library to stay in touch with the feel of a printed page, the smell of a printed book, and the look of words on paper. Most of all, I go to be in a library, to feel that electric awareness that here in this quiet place are zillions of things waiting to be discovered, waiting to feed my curiosity.
The next time you are in a library, think of the men and women who put their thoughts and feelings into words in a book. Pull one off a shelf, open it and turn to a page. Can you hear the author struggling to find just the right words for you, his reader? Some of those authors have been dead for thousands of years. Some published their book when the Egyptians were building pyramids. Some when the Greeks were discovering science and art. Some in the Dark Ages when mankind turned away from science and art. Some during the Renaissance when men and women returned to the arts and science. Some put their thoughts and feelings into a book just a year or so ago. Doesn't matter where or when. Those writers are still alive in the words they wrote for you. Be a space-time traveler. Let the author's imagination carry you to once upon a time in a land far away. Let him or her give you insights on politics, religion, history, philosophy, art, science—everything that has occupied the heads, hearts and hands of men and women throughout the ages.
