The Power of Books
Although it seems that popularity of book reading is declining since the advent of electronic media, the statistics show that book sale in the United Kingdom is not only huge but that the British are even buying more books than they used to a decade ago. This clearly reveals that book reading has not lost its charm and that books are far from becoming extinct.
There is something about the written word that simply is not there in motion pictures for instance. Books are not only entertaining and relaxing but they can be also eye-opening, inspiring, educational, shocking and even life-changing. They were always used to spread ideas and knowledge and it is hard to imagine that any other media could take away the power of books. After all, if burning of “dangerous“ books that was practised for centuries could not diminish their ability not only to change life of an individual but sometimes the entire societies, the electronic media cannot either.
Like other modes of story telling, and ideas and knowledge transmission, books are most often intended for a wider audience but they enable the author to create a kind of personal and stronger connection with the reader. This is partly a result of the fact that book writing and reading is not limited by space nor time. Television for example, limits the story teller by time and the watcher by both time and space because it requires physical presence in the living room where most people keep their televisions. A book, on the other hand, does not limit neither the author nor the reader by neither time nor space. The author is free to say as much or as little as he or she wants, while the reader is given the freedom to read whenever, wherever and whatever he or she wants.
Since books are often both entertaining and educative, many parents use them as “smart entertainment“ for their children. Books that are intended for the youngest readers help boost children’s imagination because they do not only take them into imaginary worlds but also force them to create themselves an image of the written word. At the same time, book reading increases children’s vocabulary which in turn helps them to express themselves, their feelings and needs a lot better. In addition, children who are read to and encouraged to read at an early age often perform better in school and develop a passion for books themselves when they get older.
In the recent years became popular the so-called e-books and electronic book readers which simulate book reading, however, it just does not feel the same to read from the screen than from a printed sheet of paper. The smell of the paper, the feeling of the paper on the fingers and the sound of leafing though the book makes regular book reading a unique experience and in a way, makes the reader feel closer to the author than the electronic form of reading. The books will therefore have their readers as long as they will be available in the paper form.