The way individuals reading books dispersed understanding

The way individuals reading books dispersed understanding

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Our ability to access and read books has actually been definitely important to our capability to comprehend the world around us.

It can be tough to imagine what the world would be like today if the huge majority of people were not able to read, but for the huge bulk of history the vast majority of individuals might not, and nor were books accessible even if they could. It was the creation of the printing press towards the close of the 15th that altered that, making books much more accessible. Naturally, it was still only really the wealthiest and well-read that could read or write, however it enabled a whole host of advancements in science, art, and thinking to be spread out throughout great distances. Consider what would have happened if the theory of gravity, or of evolution, could not have been dispersed around the world. Human civilisation rests upon a structure of books, and we are lucky to be able to simply log onto a website like the one backed by the co-founder of the impact investor with a stake in World of Books, and quickly gain access to the totality of human understanding.

It's important to keep in mind that, although lots of the best modern books of all time tend to be considered as ground-breaking works of fiction, for the majority of mankind's literary history, we did not write much fiction at all. Most stories would have been sung throughout the great majority of history, just since the huge bulk of people could not read, implying that a lot of books were specialised things meant for those few who might comprehend them. After a quick boom throughout the classical era of antiquity, the amount of literate people dropped considerably throughout the Middle Ages. Books became rare treasures, with monks meticulously copying out the surviving traditional texts by hand so as to protect them, as they were a few of the only members of the population who were able to read or write. They were the professional keepers of understanding like biology and religion that we all have access to in the modern world.

With such a rich history of ideas, events, and stories right at our fingertips, it's in some cases easy to forget how extremely lucky we are to have the likes of the founder of the hedge fund that owns Waterstones or the CEO of the asset manager with a stake in Amazon books supporting access to a big percentage of all the books that have actually ever been written (or the good ones at least). The best books of all time can easily change the way that you look at the world, which has actually held true throughout all of history too. The modern-day world is built on understanding that has actually been passed down through books, whether that is philosophy, science, or history, and human civilisation would not be anywhere near as advanced as it is today if it had not been for the books that changed minds across the ages.