FOCUS ON EDUCATION Who is that gorgeous book I saw you talking with last night?

A few days ago I visited the Joeten Kiju Library. As I browsed the book shelves and casually read some of the authors’ names of the various books neatly stacked on the shelves, a mysterious force overcome me. I felt as though the authors were trying to reach out to me. It was as though I were walking around a roomful of people beckoning to me in the desire of starting up a conversation. Then it dawned on me. These books were not just bunches of paper with words scribbled on them and wrapped in hard or soft covers. They were real people trying to speak to me. The authors were begging to take them off the shelf and carry them home for companionship.

I selected a book and glanced through it. The author was telling me how to improve my business based on his research and experience. A few feet away was another author anxious to talk to me about how he had traveled throughout Europe instructing me where to go and what to do. Soon I was meeting many authors.

Then I realized another phenomenon. As I read several pages I found myself listening to the writer as though he were sitting next to me in the library. At times I nodded my head in approval, and at one idea I even verbally answered a point that he made in the book. It was no longer the action of just sitting and reading a book. I felt I were really sitting down to a human being, and he was relating his experiences anxiously sharing them with me.

Also like a good friend the writer and us must exchange ideas as he speaks with us. When I own the book I usually scribble my remarks back to him in the margin. I don’t simply nod in agreement with everything he tells me just like I would in a conversation. At times I have bought used books where the previous owner wrote his own remarks in the margins. Now there are three of us communicating with one another. What a joy!

I am sharing this experience because that is the way we should look at books. The author was or is a real person with a message. He is eager to converse with us. Perhaps he has the story of his life to tell us, or wants us to share the experiences he has had in whatever interests him. At times he makes me cry and at other times he makes me laugh.

During my lifetime I have met hundreds of people who have spoken to me in books. These friends are part of my life. They are not just names on paper. I know the frustrations, pain and joy they have experienced. They have shared with me their life and as a result have enriched my own.

Books are not just books. They are real people anxious to meet us and share their life experiences with us. Reach out and touch them. Not only will we never be lonely again but we’ll have the greatest friends to share life with. Let’s select a friend presently on the bookshelf at home or at the library and spend an hour or two chatting with him. Only then will the value and beauty of the written word become real to us.

To me God’s greatest gift to man is speech with the ability to write it down for all mankind to enjoy each other’s thoughts. Cicero, an ancient Roman friend, once told me. ” A room without books is like a body without a soul.” Amen.

Strictly a personal view. Anthony Pellegrino is a businessman and member of the Board of Education.