Daniel - 2 - A Better World

Books.

A Gift To The World.

Books are the compilations and feelings of a generation. Books are history. Books are dreams, hopes, visions. Books are knowledge and wisdom. Books are beautiful.

Once upon a time there was a French author who said there were three things to have a full life: write a book, rise a child and plant a tree. Each of these things would make a better world, but if I had to pick only, I'd choose writing a book.

A book, when it is well written, is capable of changing the mentality of a society. A book can be the embodiment of a society's mentality. A book can be a warming of what's to come.

An example of a novel changing the mentality of people is The Cabin Of Uncle Tom. Published in the 19th century, it helped to spark the Civil War in USA. It gave the slaves a voice, the book depicted the scourge of slavery.

The Divine Comedy is the culture and society of the Middle Ages in Europe embodied in a book. Their superstition, their traditions, their history, their beliefs, it is all there. When we read it we learn about that time period and understand it better.

Windup Girl, a recent novel by Paolo Bacigalupi is a great example of how a book is able to impact the people to prevent future situations. All thorough the novel we see the consequences of wasting our resources, taking for granted they'll last forever when they will not.

Books are still changing the world, they make us better human beings, we learn through them, the vantage we have of a situation changes when we see with different eyes, we learn to tolerate, we learn to analyze. Books are gyms to our minds. As George R. R. Martin wrote: "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only once."

So I would write a book worth be read. A book with knowledge and a message. A gift to my generations and all the generations to come. I would write a book for the world to be a better lace.