My mother read me lots of books and taught me how to read before I went to Grade One. I loved reading so much that I read anything I could find. I recall the Bobbsey Twins as a favorite book series.
The story I remember most from my childhood is Dr. Goat by Georgina. Later, I loved to read The Hardy Boys series. I had about a dozen or more of their books and borrowed many others.
Throughout elementary school, I looked forward to getting the monthly book club catalogue and choosing a book that fit my modest budget. I loved the smell of a new book and the anticipation of a fresh new story. On Saturday mornings, my mother took me to our local library. I loved going through the stacks and picking out a few books to borrow.
We read to our kids to nurture their love of reading. It’s great to see our kids now reading to their kids and filling their homes with books. I love reading to our grandkids. They’re captivated by stories and will likely become lifelong readers and book lovers.
As I now look after my 88-year-old mother, we occasionally talk about Robert Munch’s picture book, Love You Forever. It’s a powerful story of parental love and the circle of life. It still chokes me up.
A Fascinating History of Books and Their Impact on History
I’ve been a voracious book reader all my life. I typically have three or four books — a spiritual, novel, personal/leadership/organization development, and historical/biographical book on the go in my notebook computer or phone Kindle reader. I use the Kindle app because it allows me to read anywhere at any time in any light, highlight key passages, and then add them to my searchable database with all the citation notes, page numbers, etc., for each quotation.
So… Irene Vallejo’s book, Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World, about the history of books — and their impact on history — was an obvious pick for me. I loved it. Irene masterfully shows how the written word — from clay tablets to papyrus scrolls to bound paper pages — has transformed history across multiple cultures and millennia. She’s an engaging storyteller, drawing us in with fascinating stories about the history of the written word in all its physical forms.
Papyrus opens with this action scene; “mysterious bands of men on horseback travel the roads of Greece. The country folk watch them with suspicion from their plots of land, or the doors to their huts. They know from experience that only those who represent danger travel: soldiers, mercenaries, and slave traders. They frown and grumble until the men disappear over the horizon. Country folk do not look kindly upon armed strangers.”
She explains that these hunters are “in search of a special kind of prey.” They’re searching for books. The Egyptian ruler was trying “to obtain all the books in the world for his Great Library in Alexandria. He was chasing the dream of an absolute, perfect library, a collection that would gather together every single work by every single author since the beginning of time.”
You can view a two-minute video clip of Irene giving an overview of Papyrus.
Quotes to Note from Papyrus
My Kindle version of Papyrus is full of yellow highlighted passages. Here are a few on the power of books:
- If the ideas, scientific achievements, imagination, laws, and rebellions of the Greeks and Romans survived, we owe it to the simple perfection books had achieved after centuries of searching and experimentation.
- The invention of books was perhaps the greatest triumph in our tenacious struggle against destruction. With their help, humanity has undergone an extraordinary acceleration of history, development, and progress.
- Somehow, mysteriously, spontaneously, the love of books forged an invisible chain of people –men and women — who, without knowing one another, have rescued the treasure of the greatest stories, thoughts, and dreams throughout time.
- Books help us survive major historical catastrophes and the small tragedies of our lives.
- Neither wisdom nor literature fit completely into a single mind, but thanks to books, each of us finds the door open to all the knowledge and stories in existence.
- The book collector’s passion is similar to that of the traveler. Every library is a journey, every book a passport that never expires.
- Books have a voice, and when they speak, they save eras and lives.
Not All Readers Are Leaders, But Many Outstanding Leaders Are Readers
John Coleman’s Harvard Business Review article on Managing Yourself is entitled “For Those Who Want to Lead, Read.” He writes, “Deep, broad reading habits are often a defining characteristic of our greatest leaders and can catalyze insight, innovation, empathy, and personal effectiveness. Note how many business titans are or have been avid readers… reading increases verbal intelligence, making a leader a more adept and articulate communicator. Reading novels can improve empathy and understanding of social cues, allowing a leader to better work with and understand others.”
In a survey of 208 Fortune 1000 CEOs, 84% described themselves as voracious readers when growing up. Perhaps many were beneficiaries of reading highlighted by American writer and editor Cliff Fadiman, “When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than there was before.”
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
Good books fire our imagination and expand our horizons. The best books provide stairways to personal growth and development. As Socrates advised, “Employ your time in improving yourself by other’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.”
Of course, not all books are equal. With 86,000 books published every month (reported by Irene in Papyrus), there are some great books, many mediocre books, and lots of garbage. When I am asked to review a book and provide a “cover blurb,” occasionally I agree with American satirist, Ambrose Bierce (most known for writing The Devil’s Dictionary), “the covers of this book are too far apart.”
And like many of the crazier conspiracy theories, skimming through some poorly written books recalls the Groucho Marx quip, “from the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend reading it.”
You’ve Been Warned…
Beware the warning Irene provides in Papyrus; “the threatening words inscribed at the library of the San Pedro de las Puellas monastery in Barcelona, quoted in Alberto Manguel’s A History of Reading:
“For him that steals, or borrows and returns not, a book from its owner, let it change into a serpent in his hand and rend him. Let him be struck with palsy, and all his members blasted. Let him languish in pain crying aloud for mercy, and let there be no surcease to his agony till he sing in dissolution. Let bookworms gnaw at his entrails in token of the Worm that dieth not. And when at last he goes to his final punishment, let the flames of Hell consume him forever.”
Read, lead, succeed…and return any books you borrow!
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