“Read, read, read!” implored Dr Seuss; “If you have books, you have everything” taught Kingsley Amis; while Maria Popova told us that “a life of reading is a richer, nobler, larger, more shimmering life”.
For centuries, books have fed our irrepressible hunger for truth and meaning, and some of the most celebrated exemplars of humanity – from writers to astronauts, politicians to philosophers – have extolled reading as a pillar of our very human essence. Among them is Rebecca Solnit — one of the most lyrical and insightful writers of our time.
In one of her brilliant essays on how books saved her life, Solnit observed that “the object we call a book is not the real book, but its potential, like a musical score or seed.”
This idea speaks to the value books can bring to us, most acutely felt perhaps in childhood – when our life stretches before us in infinite waves of pure energy and potential; of ideas yet to be thought, inventions yet to be made real; stories yet to be told; lives yet to be lived. In the hands of a child, a book increases such potential by an infinitesimal degree. Solnit speaks to this exquisitely in her contribution to A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader (public library) — a labour of love eight years in the making, comprising 121 illustrated letters to children about why we read and how books transform us.
Solnit writes:
Nearly every book has the same architecture — cover, spine, pages — but you open them onto worlds and gifts far beyond what paper and ink are, and on the inside they are every shape and power. Some books are toolkits you take up to fix things, from the most practical to the most mysterious, from your house to your heart, or to make things, from cakes to ships. Some books are wings. Some are horses that run away with you. Some are parties to which you are invited, full of friends who are there even when you have no friends. In some books you meet one remarkable person; in others a whole group or even a culture. Some books are medicine, bitter but clarifying. Some books are puzzles, mazes, tangles, jungles. Some long books are journeys, and at the end you are not the same person you were at the beginning. Some are handheld lights you can shine on almost anything.
Such ideas have of course been spun by other fantastic thinkers – yet there is something beautiful and important of voices and creative ways to teach children of the value of books. In an era of AI, increasing corporate art – the commercialisation of thought – in a time of 12 second tik tok videos, misinformation, culture wars and societal division, reading books is perhaps more important than ever. And it seems especially vital that future generations should revere books as so many of our greatest minds do. In a beautiful metaphor, Solnit likens a book to a gift, writing:
“Each book is a gift a writer made for strangers, a gift I’ve given a few times and received so many times, every day since I was six.”
So, why not make Solnit’s beautifully illustrated book a gift of your own to someone you love? And share your own reasons for loving books in the comments below!
nothing in the rulebook 