Chris Belland's - "Hindsights & Insights"
Sunday, August 8, 2010
What can be silent for centuries yet speak at your command?

By CHRIS BELLAND Citizen Columnist

Books, of course. I'm not sure if I am first to voice that rather erudite sounding quote (I doubt it), but it came to me very recently while I was on vacation. Let me explain.

I love a good read, but I have not read a fiction book for so long, I can't remember what the last one was. I read constantly all day long documents and reports that have to do with my business and, other than the newspaper and magazines, not much else in the evening or on weekends. I can tell you for sure that my eyes are tired at night to the point of not wanting to read much more.

In any event, I recently went on vacation and took the opportunity to read a book of fiction. It was excellent and hypnotically held my attention. It was one of those books they call a "page turner" or one that you "can't put down." I'm sure you know the kind. It was a great book and I have already started the next one by the same author. For the record, it was Pat Conroy's "The Great Santini."

The thought occurred to me as I was flying home that books are an extraordinary and unique communication of thought. A book written in the 17th century, over 300 years ago, can still have the same meaning and impact as it first did. When you look at the writings of Dante, Espinoza, Voltaire, Jefferson, Hemingway, Faulkner or any of what we have come to know as classics, you can see that the brilliance of their thoughts still burns bright. Machiavelli's "The Prince" (1532) and Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" (circa sixth century B.C.) are respective bibles for politicians, businessmen and the military of the 20th century.

My own love affair with books started as a boy when my mother used to take me to the only bookstore south of Flagler Avenue in Miami. That's right, the only one, unlike today where it seems there is a mega-bookstore on every corner such as Borders, Walden's, Barnes & Noble and, at your fingertips, Amazon.com. Books seem to be everywhere, which is pretty astonishing when you think that this is all happening during the explosion of the electronic age where we are being programmed to begin reading on a screen using new devices like iPods and Kindles. To me, however, there is nothing like a book in hand. The smell, the physical turning of the pages are irrefutably visceral.

The one bookstore in South Miami was run by a tall, bald gentleman and his diminutive wife. They both had very strong European accents, which at the time I was too timid to ask what they were, but it was certainly something Slavic or Teutonic. The rather stern proprietors brooked no nonsense or misbehavior from young patrons. They didn't have to. If you wanted a book, they had the only place you could get it. When you walked in it was a quiet, disciplined experience and the memories of the smell of new books and the cracking of the binding when they were first opened has always been a pleasant part of my memory.

Today our bookstores are in cafes or the cafes are in the bookstores, they have a kids corner and they sell a lot more than just the books. I guess I'm just a purist. It seems strange to me that in the age of instant inquiry gratification you still see the majority of airplane travelers with books. It beats a bag of peanuts, a beer, the 2-inch reclining seat and confirms the relevance of the written word as still the greatest stimulator of the imagination.

Never again will a Venetian travel to an ancient China and bring back the secrets of gun powder, pasta and paper. No adventurer will ever again be the first to cross the continent of North America, sail west over the horizon into "terra incognita" or venture into the dark continent in search of the source of the Nile. No, these stories are unique for all time and will resonate through the ages.

The messages in books are eternal and there will always be new audiences. Books can teach, titillate, rationalize and record. Probably, the greatest gift they give is a point of view that can be debated, cherished, challenged, refuted or influenced for centuries after being conceived. They make a reader work his brain to get the point instead of interpreting it for him. All one has to do is read with an open mind. If you don't think so, consider the Bible or the Quran or, for that matter, "Catcher In The Rye" or "Ulysses."

Bookstores have always appealed to me as almost an addictive experience. I have never been able to go into a bookstore without coming out with at least one. I'm not sure who said, "Man is never so vulnerable as when he is in a bookstore." I wish I had, because it's oh so true.

Chris Belland's Hindsights & Insights column appears here on Sundays. Belland also writes a biweekly column on environmental issues, which runs in our Sunday magazine, Solares Hill. All of his previous columns are available on his blog: hindsightsandinsights.blogspot.com. Contact Chris at cbelland@keysnews.com.