Here is a speech I had to give.
Books are a center point in my life, something that I enjoy, learn from, and think about. I have poured over the pages of many books and have found that all good books– from paperback, fantasy fiction to hardcover, biographical nonfiction– share three defining factors: their power, timelessness, and friendship.
Books have the power to challenge thought, forcing the reader to consider the central theme. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the president during WW II, understood the power of books, declaring in his message to the American Booksellers Association that:
Books cannot be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can abolish memory…. In this war, we know, books are weapons.
Not only are books weapons, but also portals to other places, times, and even worlds, instantly transporting the reader far away.
Books are a timeless creation of the mind. John Ruskin, the nineteenth century Oxford professor, in his book Sesame and Lilies said this:
All books are divisible into two classes: the books of the hour, and the books of all time. Sesame and Lilies [1865], Of King’s Treasuries, sec. 8. John Ruskin (1819-1900)
What makes an excellent book timeless? What enables it to reach across time and touch the hearts of the readers? What is the emotional tie that binds the author to his book?
The friendship offered by books was most clearly stated by Ralph Waldo Emerson, author of Walden Pond:
I do then with my friends as I do with my books. I would have them where I can find them, but I seldom use them. Essays: First Series. Friendship
All good books are as comrades; you are joyous at the meeting and heart-rent at the parting. Each book on one’s shelf is a friend that brings back fond memories, but is not to be overused, lest it lose its zest.
Novels, textbooks, biographies, and many others – I enjoy all of these, and have, over time, realized that books are truly treasures. Without books, I would not be the person that I am today. I can say with Prospero in Shakespeare’s The Tempest:
Knowing I lov’d my books, he furnish’d me,
From mine own library with volumes that
I prize above my dukedom.
The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2, 166
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
"The only thing that anybody really knows about this author is that he is a real nutcase."
-Anonymous reporter
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