Ways in which people reading books expanded knowledge

Ways in which people reading books expanded knowledge

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

It can be tough to imagine what the world would be like today if the large bulk of people were not able to read, but for the huge majority of history the vast bulk of individuals could 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. Obviously, it was still just really the richest and well-educated that could read or write, however it made it possible for 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 distributed around the world. Human civilisation rests upon a structure of books, and we are fortunate 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 easily gain access to the totality of human understanding.

It's important to remember that, although lots of the best modern books of all time tend to be considered ground-breaking works of fiction, for the majority of mankind's literary history, we did not write much fiction at all. Many stories would have been sung throughout the great majority of history, just since the huge bulk of individuals might not read, meaning that many books were specialised things meant for those few who could understand them. After a short boom throughout the classical period of antiquity, the quantity of literate people dropped considerably during the Middle Ages. Books became rare treasures, with monks painstakingly copying out the surviving traditional texts by hand so as to protect them, as they were some of the only members of the populace who could read or write. They were the expert keepers of understanding like biology and religious beliefs that all of us have access to in the contemporary world.

With such an abundant history of concepts, occasions, and stories right at our fingertips, it's in some cases simple to forget how extremely fortunate 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 substantial percentage of all the books that have actually ever been composed (or the good ones at the very least). The best books of all time can quickly change the way that you look at the world, and that has been true throughout all of history as well. The modern-day world is built on understanding that has actually been handed down through books, whether that is ideology, 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.