It’s Not Hoarding If It’s Books

– Guest Student Post, by Hailey Hasic

“There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away,
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry—
This Traverse may the poorest take,
Without oppress of Toll—
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears the Human Soul.” (“There is no Frigate like a Book”)

This is a poem written by Emily Dickinson, and it has long been one of my favorites. In it, she talks about books as though they are ships, bearing us to faraway places, showing us new sights and giving us new experiences. She also mentions that there is no toll—no price to be paid—for these expeditions. The average person strolling around a bookstore might disagree. Books can be quite expensive, and the bookowner is more likely to find his money burning a hole in the Books-A-Million cash register than his pocket. And yet, in spite of this, I hope to convince you today that every person should seek to develop a robust personal library, because of the benefits of reading old books, the blessings to the community around you, and the importance of physical copies. This issue is more important than it might seem. With the rise of the internet and social media, we are losing our grip on thousands of years of literature. We must reclaim what C.S. Lewis termed “Old Western Culture,” the culture that was handed down to us
from Christianized Western Europe. I propose that part of the way we do this is by collecting (and of course reading) the books that have influenced humanity throughout the ages.

For my first proof, I would like to point to an essay written by C.S. Lewis entitled, “On the Reading of Old Books.” In this essay, Lewis shows us the importance of reading books outside of our own time period. He says that every age carries its own prejudices and assumptions that the contemporaries of that age are blind to. He says: “None of us can fully escape this blindness, but we shall certainly increase it, and weaken our guard against it, if we read only modern books. Where they are true they will give us truths which we half knew already. Where they are false they will aggravate the error with which we are already dangerously ill. The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books.” Like Emily Dickinson said, books are ships that bear us away to other times, and give us a fresh perspective on our own culture, but in order to treasure these books properly, we must keep them near to us. A lent book from a public library just won’t do the trick. I once heard it said that “time is a river … and books are boats.” You don’t want to rely on a borrowed boat. That is why it is so important to collect your own library of flotation devices that will help you master the great waves of time.

Secondly, developing a robust personal library will have benefits not only for you, but also for your friends and your family. We have an example of this in Sir Robert Cotton. Sir Robert Cotton was a great collector of books in the late 1500’s and early 1600’s. As the monasteries of England were being shut down, Sir Robert Cotton rescued the books from the monasteries and collected them into a library in his home. He was not the only one who benefitted from this library; his friends and family would read the manuscripts that he had saved, and eventually, the books in the Cotton library became the foundation of the British museum. Were it not for the work of Sir Robert Cotton, we would be deprived of many of the literary treasures that we enjoy today. His example shows us that the implications of a personal library extend beyond the individual. Remember that our mission is to rebuild the culture that we have lost. By collecting libraries filled with rich and influential books, we are ensuring their preservation, and the further cultivation of the community around us.

Thirdly, I must not fail to stress the importance of having physical books. E-books can be helpful at times, but we should not rely on digital copies for all of our reading. In the first place, E-books are unreliable. If the i-pad malfunctions, or loses service, or dies, that is the end of it. No more reading, until you can fix the problem. You are putting your opportunity to read these books in the hands of someone else—the software companies, or worse, the government. Secondly, E-books eliminate one of the key aspects of reading well, and that is marking up the margins. I think I might have heard some of you gasp as I said that. Mar the innards of a book? How dare we? But Mortimer Adler, in his article “How to Mark Up a Book” says, “reading, if it is active, is thinking, and thinking tends to express itself in words, spoken or written. The marked book is usually the thought-through book.” He also says in that article, “I contend, quite bluntly, that marking up a book is not an act of mutilation, but of love. You shouldn’t mark up a book which isn’t yours.” This brings us once again to the argument that everyone should develop a
personal library. If you are going to read well, then you must have physical books that you take
notes in. And if you are going to do that, then you must have a library.

There are some who might disagree that everyone should collect a personal library. They might say that the expense is too great. I am not going to pretend that collecting a library is a cheap endeavor. It will cost you much money and even a good deal of time and effort, but there are things in this world which are worth the time and the money. Collecting a library is one of those things. You would be willing to spend a large amount of money on a car, or on a pair of shoes, or on any number of physical and temporal things. How much more should you be willing to spend money on books, whose heritage is priceless and whose influence is eternal?

Those who argue that not everyone should develop a personal library also might say that there is no need to collect so many books when there are other resources such as public libraries and the internet. However, as we have already seen, public libraries and E-books do not offer the same lasting benefits as a physical, personal library. The only way to truly be an attentive student of literature is to own a collection of your own.

We have seen the benefits that come from reading old books, being able to share these books with friends and family, and having access to the physical copies. In light of all of this, I must offer one final caveat, which comes again from Mortimer Adler. He warns us that: “Having a fine library doesn’t prove that its owner has a mind enriched by books; it proves nothing more than that he, his father, or his wife, was rich enough to buy them.” We must never prioritize owning books over reading them. Owning a book only proves that your bank account is capacious, but being a student of good literature shows that your mind is enriched. Collect good books whenever you have the chance, but don’t forget to read them too. Read them actively, taking notes and concentrating on the meaning. Read them with spirit and joy, knowing that they have the power to renew your perspective and broaden your understanding, and giving thanks to your Father in Heaven, who has given you such boats to carry you through the storm.

— Miss Hasic was the winner of Kepler Education’s annual 2024 Leonberg Persuasive Speech Contest. She wrote this speech for Dr. Soderberg’s Rhetoric: Fitting Words class.