Books are Good

One interesting observation that I have made over the course of my time at Baylor, is the extent to which being well read is becoming less and less valued. What is being well read? It is not necessarily reading extensively, nor being up to date on all the New York Times Best-Sellers. More nearly, it is having read the classics – not only fiction, but classic philosophy, mythology, important scientific works, etc. Why would anyone want to be well read? Well it seems to me that there are all kinds of references that are thrown around everyday that are throwbacks to these classics. Having read these texts allows us to better appreciate conversation and references in everyday reading.

A much more important point and a better reason to be well read is the extent to which these classics tell us something about ourselves and human nature. After all that is really why these books are interesting and why we should want to invest so much time in reading them. In the end they are useful to us, not simply to help us make witticisms that go over most people’s heads, or to make ourselves sound more intelligent than we are, but more nearly as being informative and thought provoking. In reading these texts we see ourselves reflected back, and can identify with them. I am always amazed when I go to the bookstore at the end of the semester to sell back a few books, and see people returning classics. Granted, they may have other copies of their own but I take it most are simply returning the only copy they have ever, or will ever own - and for what? A few bucks to buy a sandwich or beer? What a waste! It’s one thing to sell back an expensive text book that will probably be obsolete in another year, but it is quite another to sell back something that is worth infinitely more than the bookstore is willing to give you for it. I don’t think people realize the true value of what they are often forced into buying by their professors of that elective class they had to take for some reason as part of their graduation requirements. Indeed, as that old adage goes, “you can’t judge a book by its cover”, but perhaps you can judge a person by the books they have in their library, if they have one at all…