The world today is built upon a practically incomprehensible amount of understanding that has been passed down in books.
With such an abundant history of ideas, events, and stories right at our fingertips, it's sometimes simple to forget how exceptionally fortunate we are to have the likes of the founder of the hedge fund that owns Waterstones or the CEO of the asset manager with a stake in Amazon books supporting access to a substantial percentage of all the books that have actually ever been written (or the good ones at the very least). The best books of all time can quickly alter the manner in which you look at the world, and that has actually held true throughout all of history also. The modern world is built upon understanding that has actually been passed down through books, whether that is philosophy, science, or history, and human civilisation would not be anywhere near as advanced as it is today if it had not been for the books that changed minds throughout the ages.
It can be tough to picture what the world would be like today if the vast bulk of individuals were not able to read, but for the huge bulk of history the large majority of individuals might not, and nor were books accessible even if they could. It was the innovation of the printing press towards the close of the 15th that altered that, making books far more accessible. Of course, it was still just truly the richest and well-read that could read or write, however it enabled an entire host of developments in science, art, and thinking to be spread throughout great distances. Consider what would have occurred if the theory of gravity, or of evolution, could not have been dispersed around the world. Human civilisation rests upon a foundation of books, and we are fortunate to be able to just log onto a website like the one backed by the co-founder of the impact investor with a stake in World of Books, and quickly gain access to the totality of human knowledge.
It's important to bear in mind that, although lots of the best modern books of all time tend to be regarded as ground-breaking works of fiction, for the majority of humanity's literary history, we did not compose much fiction at all. Many stories would have been sung throughout the great majority of history, just because the huge majority of individuals could not read, meaning that a lot of books were specialised things meant for those few who could comprehend them. After a short boom during the classical age of antiquity, the amount of literate people dropped dramatically throughout the Middle Ages. Books became uncommon treasures, with monks painstakingly copying out the enduring classic texts by hand so as to maintain them, as they were some of the only members of the population who could read or write. They were the professional keepers of knowledge like biology and faith that we all have access to in the modern-day world.