This essay is adapted from "The Companionship of Book,"first published in A Librarian's open Shelf 1920
Are books our companions?That depends.
You and I read them with pleasure;others do not care for them.
To some,the reading of any book is as impossiable as reading a book in a foreign language.
These people do not read-at all.
Take a New York police officer.
Someone suggested he ought to read a novel a novel in his vacation time,but he said,"Well,I've never read a book yet, and I don't think I'll begin now".
He had no use for books.
He could get along perfecthly well without them,and he is not uniqe.
These people are not uneducated;they have and are still gaining much knowledge.
However,they gain this knowledge not from books,but by personal experience and by word of mouth.
Is it possible that they are right? Could it be true that reading books is not necessary?
To answer these questions,let's stop and think about books.
Books may be used in three ways.
First, a book can give us information.
It is valuable not because it a physical object,made of paper and ink , but because it records ideas that can pass from generation to generation.
Second,reading can be fun.
When a reader loves an exciting story and cannot stop reading, he stays up late at night reading.
Finally,books can inspire.
Reading about how to make a box may inspire a boy to go out and make one himself.
And inspiration goes beyond boxes! A good idea in a book can make those who read it into better men or women.
What do all these examples show us? Books make it possible for ideas to go beyond one person,to cross places and time.
This is the miracle of writing-a miracle that is repeated daily in millions of placess with millions of readers.