Why Books?

1. Because SCHOOLS as we have known them depend on BOOKS.

"When media make war against each other, it is a case of world-views in collision. In the United States, we can see such collisions everywhere —in politics, in religion, in commerce— but we see them most clearly in the schools, where two great technologies confront each other in uncompromising aspect for the control of students’ minds.

"On the one hand, there is the world of the printed word with its emphasis on logic, sequence, history, exposition, objectivity, detachment, and discipline. On the other, there is the world of television with its emphasis on imagery, narrative, presentness, simultaneity, intimacy, immediate gratification, and quick emotional response. Children come to school having been deeply conditioned by the biases of television. There, they encounter the world of the printed word. A sort of psychic battle takes place, and there are many casualties — children who can't learn to read or won't, children who cannot organize their thought into logical structure even in a simple paragraph, children who cannot attend to lectures or oral explanations for more than a few minutes at a time. They are failures, but not because they are stupid. They are failures because there is a media war going on, and they are on the wrong side — at least for the moment. Who knows what schools will be like twenty-five years from now? Or fifty? In time, the type of student who is currently a failure may be considered a success. The type who is now successful may be regarded as a handicapped learner —slow to respond, far too detached, lacking in emotion, inadequate in creating mental pictures of reality." Neil Postman, Technopoly

2. Because BOOKS passed hand to hand are the last medium to stand against OLIGARCHICAL TYRANNY.

"It was during the moment of disorder while the posters were being torn down that a man whose face Winston did not see had tapped him on the shoulder and said, ’Excuse me, I think you’ve dropped your brief-case.’ He took the brief-case abstractedly, without speaking. He knew that it would be days before he had an opportunity to look inside it ...  At twelve hundred it was unexpectedly announced that all workers in the Ministry of Truth were free till tomorrow morning. Winston, still carrying the brief-case containing the book, which had remained between his feet while he worked and under his body while he slept, went home, shaved himself, and almost fell asleep in his bath, although the water was barely more than tepid. Julia would arrive presently: meanwhile there was the book. He sat down in the sluttish armchair and undid the straps of the brief-case. A heavy black volume, amateurishly bound, with no name or title on the cover. The print also looked slightly irregular. The pages were worn at the edges, and fell apart, easily, as though the book had passed through many hands. THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF OLIGARCHICAL COLLECTIVISM by Emmanuel Goldstein ... Winston began reading." George Orwell, 1984

3. Because GOD has somehow chosen BOOKS to reveal the power of the WORD to humans.

Did you know our words for book, bible, library, single and liberty are all entangled with the same Latin word ... liber ? This is a great mystery that delivers strength to the weak, fear to the oppressor and glory to God. Books partake in discovery and examination as well as finality and judgment. They deliver ideas from the ravages of time and the distortions of custom. They stand as words suspended in the universe ... awaiting what will and must come. Our fate is somehow tied up with books. We neglect them at our peril.

"Then I saw a great white throne and the One seated on it. Earth and heaven fled from His presence, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And there were open books, and one of them was the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their deeds, as recorded in the books. The sea gave up its dead, and Death and Hades gave up their dead, and each one was judged according to his deeds. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death—the lake of fire. And if anyone was found whose name was not written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." Revelations 20