“Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world”, Napoleon Bonaparte
In 1258, Mongols invaded Baghdad and pillaged the great city. Within the city, there were library know as the House of Wisdom. It was destroyed and the books within the library were dumped in the Tigris river. It is said that the river turned black from the ink. Over centuries, Muslims collected knowledge from different parts of the world and recorded the knowledge in this library. There were other smaller libraries in other cities but this one was larger then the rest of them combined. That week, we lost priceless volumes on Greek philosophy, Roman engineering, Chinese medicine, and every other subject we can imagine. All that knowledge was lost forever.
Throughout history, destroying books was a common occurrence in different parts of the world. Monarchs, conquerors, religious fundamentalists, pillagers, and angry mobs were the most common culprits. This unfortunate reality means that most of the knowledge accumulated by humans in the pre-industrial age was destroyed.
We build knowledge on top of existing knowledge. The knowledge we have today has its roots in ancient times. So a book you read today, indirectly contains knowledge gained or inspired from other books the author read who read older books, and so on. The knowledge we have today is available to us because of large time, effort, and financial investments made by many to ensure the knowledge remains available to future generations. The knowledge in books are a gift to us from our ancestors.
We cannot go back in time and talk to Socrates, Confucius, or other great minds but we can read what they wrote. Writing has preserved human knowledge for thousands of years. Reading opens their wisdom to us. Writing is human record.
Today we have infinite amount of reading material available to us. The quality ranges from highly valuable information to complete nonsense and lies. What you read will influence how you interpret the world around you. Read great investment books, and you will acquire skills to become a prudent investor. Read gossip and you will learn to focus on every useless thing. Read propaganda literature and you will become brainwashed. Decide what you want to become. The read content written by people who have mastered that domain. The reading will pave the path to your growth in that domain.