The Power of Books

Thomas Edison, I believe, stated, why should I commit to memory all kinds of knowledge when I can go to a book and find it? (something like that).

All kinds of people with great knowledge about many, many different things have written it down in a book to keep it for other people to read and learn. I love to tap into their knowledge. Why should I have to study as hard as they did in a particular area – there are so many of interest to me – or make all kinds of mistakes doing something I know nothing about when I can learn from someone else who has already been there and done that !?

My brother, who is a cabinet maker, was remaking a carved half round wood piece to go over an old house’s exterior window. The original piece was gone, but the home owners had a old picture of their house showing the particular detail and they wanted it restored.

It was a little bit tricky; not like sawing half of a circle. He took the measurements and then remembered a very old book of our father’s (who was also a cabinet maker) that contained projects and equations for constructing just such a piece. It saved him so much time from having to figure it all out on his own. Here he could turn to a book and see where someone else had already figured it out and written it down. The helpful equation and diagram was still accessible for this future woodworker’s project when they could no longer be asked how to do it.

I love to look at pictures in books, studying all the details of a room, a design and read how it was put together, what their thought process was and why.

There was a period of time when so much was online to read. People wondered about the future of books. but now, more than ever it seems, people are turning to books for help and enjoyment.

How do you feel about books?