The world today is built upon a practically incomprehensible quantity of understanding that has actually been handed down in books.

It's important to bear in mind that, although lots of the best modern books of all time tend to be considered ground-breaking works of fiction, for most of mankind's literary history, we did not write much fiction at all. Most stories would have been sung throughout the great bulk of history, just because the huge majority of people might not read, implying that most books were specialised things meant for those few who might understand them. After a quick boom throughout the classical era of antiquity, the quantity of literate individuals dropped considerably throughout the Middle Ages. Books became uncommon treasures, with monks painstakingly copying out the enduring traditional texts by hand so as to preserve them, as they were a few of the only members of the populace who were able to read or write. They were the specialist keepers of understanding like biology and religion that all of us have access to in the modern world.

With such an abundant history of ideas, occasions, and stories right at our fingertips, it's sometimes simple to forget how incredibly fortunate we are to have the likes of the founder of the hedge fund that owns Waterstones or the CEO of the asset manager with a stake in Amazon books supporting access to a substantial proportion of all the books that have actually ever been composed (or the good ones at least). The best books of all time can quickly change the manner in which you take a look at the world, and that has actually been true throughout all of history also. The modern-day world is built upon understanding that has actually been passed down through books, whether that is ideology, science, or history, and human civilisation would not be anywhere near as advanced as it is today if it had actually not been for the books that changed minds across the ages.

It can be tough to imagine what the world would be like today if the huge majority of people were unable to read, but for the huge majority of history the large bulk of people could not, and nor were books available even if they could. It was the development of the printing press towards the close of the 15th that changed that, making books a lot more available. Of course, it was still only truly the wealthiest and well-educated that could read or write, but it allowed an entire host of breakthroughs in science, art, and thinking to be spread across great distances. Consider what would have taken place if the theory of gravity, or of evolution, could not have actually been distributed across the globe. Human civilisation rests upon a structure of books, and we are fortunate to be able to merely log onto a website like the one backed by the co-founder of the impact investor with a stake in World of Books, and easily access the totality of human knowledge.