GoodReads.com

I've heard that Socrates believed that the written word (ie. books) would be used too much as a crutch for man. He seemed to believe a person addled their mind, became lazy, by relying on a written source rather than memorization. His concern is valid but there are so many positives that outweigh it.

And as Al Gore said in a speech recently, the invention of the written word, then the printing press (and now the Internet) had helped to democratize information and societies. These inventions allowed people to educate, write and distribute their ideas to others. It allowed a person to participate in the world of knowledge! No longer was information controlled by the few (not as much at least).

In the early days the powerful disseminator of knowledge was the church. What they said was truth. This was because there wasn't another source of information, no less a dissenting one to open up an argument on the topic.

One of the first book's to be widely distributed using the printing press was the Gutenberg's Bible and it wasn't in Latin but in common tongues. Now suddenly the people could interpret the Bible for themselves and talk about it then print books themselves with their views.

Now the Church wasn't the only channel to watch when wanting to hear God's word. You can see where this goes. The point is that democracy is strengthened by the public having access. Multiple sources and the chance for their own ideas to be heard by others.

So lets celebrate reading! Today I learned of a very cool website: GoodReads.com Here people can track what books their friends and others are reading and reviewing. It's free and gets me excited to read more.
Please join me and go make an account. Peace