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

It can be difficult to imagine what the world would resemble today if the vast bulk of individuals were unable to read, but for the vast bulk of history the vast bulk of people might not, and nor were books accessible even if they could. It was the creation of the printing press towards the close of the 15th that changed that, making books far more accessible. Naturally, it was still only actually the richest and well-read that could read or write, however it allowed an entire host of breakthroughs in science, art, and thinking to be spread out across great distances. Consider what would have taken place if the theory of gravity, or of evolution, could not have been distributed around the world. Human civilisation rests upon a foundation 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 quickly gain access to the totality of human knowledge.

With such an abundant history of concepts, events, and stories right at our fingertips, it's in some cases simple to forget how incredibly lucky 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 big percentage of all the books that have actually ever been written (or the good ones at least). The best books of all time can quickly alter the way that you look at the world, and that has actually been true throughout all of history also. The modern-day world is built upon knowledge that has actually been handed 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 not been for the books that changed minds across the ages.

It is very important to bear in mind that, although plenty of the best modern books of all time tend to be regarded as ground-breaking works of fiction, for most of humankind's literary history, we did not compose much fiction at all. The majority of stories would have been sung throughout the great bulk of history, simply since the large bulk of individuals might not read, suggesting that most books were specialised things meant for those few who could understand them. After a brief boom during the classical era of antiquity, the amount of literate individuals dropped significantly during the Middle Ages. Books became unusual treasures, with monks meticulously copying out the surviving traditional texts by hand so as to protect them, as they were a few of the only members of the population who were able to read or write. They were the expert keepers of knowledge like biology and religious beliefs that we all have access to in the contemporary world.