August 23, 2015

Books

There’s been no greater force for good in my life than books.

I can think back to some of the most important events in my life, the turning points in my early youth and all the way to the present, and tell you exactly the book that gave me a new perspective and helped me face a challenge without fear.

Books provided me with an education that I wasn’t always privy to growing up in poor neighborhoods, with poor schools and with parents who weren’t always there.

Books were the first thing I turned to for lessons on life, for a laugh or to learn how to do just about anything.

Book stores are a dangerous place for me to visit. I can’t come away empty handed on any visit to a bookstore.

These days I can’t even go looking on Amazon or iBooks without coming away with something.

The physical book with paper pages is vanishing from the necessity. Someday it may die, but our desire to share stories and information never will. Books, in whatever format, will continue to be more than just a nostalgic method of connecting with something new, or with something old, or with ourselves.