And now, an ode to books. This is from Edith Mae Cummings’s book titled: Pots and Pans and Millions: A Study of Woman’s Right to Be in Business.
1929: Books
Books are often the best companions. They make it possible for us to walk through the streets of ancient cities, to talk with scientists and philosophers, to talk with statesmen, queens and emperors that lived so long ago that the cities that they ruled over have crumbled into dust. They make it possible for us to take flights into the infinite realms of romance. They make it possible for us to travel over all the earth by land and sea, to visit strange places, and talk with unusual people. They make it possible for us to know the lives of people who have moulded the history of the world and directed the course of human events.
They say that people might be judged by the company they keep. It is equally true that people may be judged by the kind of books they read. In these days of hectic speed, automobiles, moving pictures, radio, and companionate marriage, the old-fashioned pastime of spending our evenings home reading has about died out.
We must realize that our knowledge and education depend on reading. After we have left grade school, high school or college, our education stops if we do not read. The best educated people are the ones who keep on reading.
Source: Cummings, Edith Mae. Pots and Pans and Millions. Washington, D.C.: National School of Business Science for Women, 1929.
~ p. 373 ~