The Best Books

 

I know that the Internet and instantaneous access to limitless information has both practical and wonderful benefits.

But walking by the library and seeing these up for grab on the “free” cart made me nostalgic for the era of learning that involved laying on my stomach in our living room as I perused everything from aardvarks to Zaire. 

Learning and knowledge are invaluable and I am

thankful that my parents had those volumes in our home.  I remember the excitement I had when each new year book would arrive.

Now we also have podcasts, audiobooks, countless streaming services and more to compete for our time.  

Yet the scriptural message is unchanged.  

“Seek ye learning out of the best books.” 

Elder Joe J Christensen, in one of my favorite addresses ever given, explained,

“Suppose you were to read an entire book each week for the next seventy years. You would read 3,640 books. That sounds like a lot; however, reportedly, there are today in the Library of Congress more than twenty-seven million books. One futurist—Tofler—said that books are spewing from the presses of the world at the rate of a thousand titles per day. That means that in seventy years there will be at least an additional twenty-five million volumes.

If we read continually, we would not be able to read more than the smallest fraction of the books in print. We should not waste time reading anything but that which would be uplifting and instructive. There is a lot of frivolous, useless, and morally destructive material in print that falls far short of that with which we should spend even a minute of our time. Remember, the scripture said, “Seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom”.