Books or, more importantly, the reading of books is a singularly unique miracle to our soul. "Someone once asked Phillips Brooks, 'When were you born?' And he said, 'I will tell you about it. It was one Sunday afternoon about 3:30 just after I had finished reading a great book.'" [1] I had a similar experience, and as fate would have it, my experience was also on a Sunday afternoon, probably about the same time. The book I had just completed was titled "The Majesty of Books," from which I will use this quote and other quotes to highlight the importance of the book to me.
I was 20 years old and serving an LDS mission in the beautiful state of Oklahoma. Miami, Oklahoma, to be exact. A church member's family had invited us for dinner after service, accompanied by conversation and the ever unavoidable nap. I always awoke with a start as the younger household children enjoyed throwing pillows on me from afar to witness my sometimes violent awakening. I no longer recall the cause of such violent reactions; however, throughout my college years, I had regularly punched holes in walls and friends' faces. I always warned people that if I fell asleep, don't try to shake me awake; throw something at me to stay at a safe distance.
For the past several visits, I had not been tired after lunch but sat with a book I had found to be of intense interest to me. The book written by Stirling W. Sill was about books and opened a hunger and thirst for knowledge within me that was difficult for me to understand. "Books serve as our storehouses of wisdom" [2] Mr. Sill expounds in the first chapter; unfortunately, The more I've read, the more I've come to appreciate that not all books serve as this miraculous storehouse of wisdom. Quality books in which " we may learn great leadership, great occupational know how, great wisdom, great religion, great happiness," [3] grow fewer and fewer every year. Instead, we are inundated with books of poor quality, subtle agendas of the authors' choosing, or just plain nonsense. The phrase "Seek ye out of the best books" [3] has never been more critical yet difficult to achieve.
So here we sit, caught between the rock of poor quality or nonsense and the hard place of letting those few quality books continue to lay on the shelf. How, then, do we seek out, find, and read the best of books for each of us on a more personal level? We receive counsel to seek learning through study. We are admonished to learn through diligent research and teach one another "words of wisdom." These precious "words of wisdom" are found in books, not just any book, but the best of books. [4]
Author Steve Leveen, in his book The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life, encourages us to take control of our reading. Books complement our curiosities; if magazines or newspaper articles invigorate our passion for a topic or theme, they become a source of inspiration for us. We would do well to collect for our library the actual book and keep it for our heritage. Laveen says that the "keys to your kingdoms" reside in having the "best books ever written on your subjects." [5]
"Books are not dead things but contain a certain potency of life in them as active as the soul whose progeny they are. They preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy of the living intellect that bread them." ~ John Milton [6]
It is disappointing that these "vials" mentioned by John Milton are forever sealed to their readers. To be continued in part 2.
Written August 14, 2022
Reference:
[1] Sill, S. W. (1974). The majesty of books. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book. p.305.
[2] IBID p.3.
[3] [Doctrine and Covenants 88:118](https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/88?lang=eng&id=p118#p118)
[4] IBID
[5] Leveen, Steve. The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life: How to Get More Books in Your Life and More Life from Your Books. Levenger Press, 2005. pp.104-105.
[6] Sill, S. W. (1974). The majesty of books. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book. p.5.