Pearl River Community College's award winning literary magazine

Special Edition—Spring-Summer 1998

Essay Section

Books

by Lowell G. Erwin

When I was seven years old, I fell in love with books. That was when reading ceased to be drudgery demanded by a teacher and became a lifelong pleasure. I can think of nothing worse than being unable to read. If I should be incarcerated, lock me up in the Library of Congress. I will be a happy man.

I have used books for many purposes. Reading for pleasure and entertainment was always my main desire. I have read books by our first American novelist, James Fenimore Cooper, and by our current great authors. Fiction writers like John Grisham and Tom Clancy have given me many hours of enjoyment. How bare and bleak our world would be without the great writers of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I have spent countless hours with a book in my hand, but have never felt I wasted a moment.

I have used books to help me repair my house, my car, and my appliances. If I needed to repair a roof, a carburetor, or a clothes dryer, I only had to go to the local library. There are many skills that can be ours, acquired from books at the local library. Best of all, there is never a charge. We can get a pretty good education just from reading what is available in the smallest of the public libraries.

For learning purposes books are supreme. Without a history book, I would not know of my own country's origins. I would not know of the human need for freedom and liberty without reading the thoughts of our forefathers passed on to us in books. Without an English book, I would not know whether to lie down, or lay down at bedtime. Without a math book, I would still be counting on my fingers to do simple math, and taking my shoes off to do higher math. If asked for advice to further your education I would simply say, read all you can.

My books became a time machine to transport me to different ages. I visited the ancient worlds of the Greeks, Romans, and Phoenicians. I watched as the pyramids were built. I saw the great wall of China being built. I was there when the Mayans built their great cities. I used my time machine to travel into the future, courtesy of Heinlein, Asimov, and Campbell. I met people who were red, brown, yellow, and black. Thanks to Edgar Rice Burroughs, I even met people who were blue and green.

Every place I have been, every time I have been; I was shown how the past had been, and I was shown how the future could be. Reading makes me realize how lucky I am to be here, now, when there is so much literature available from which to pick and choose. This has not always been so. Prior to the invention of the printing press, all books were hand written and very labor intensive. This made them so expensive that they were out of reach of an ordinary person. Only the very rich could afford them. A library of a hundred books was almost unheard of. Now I have hundreds and many people have more. Even the poorest of our people can have a lot of books and magazines. We live in the world of books today. I count myself lucky this is so. I would not want it any other way.