In the News (from The New York Times): The point may soon come when there are more people who want to write books than there are people who want to read them. …companies that charge writers and photographers to publish are growing rapidly at a time when many mainstream publishers are losing ground. Experts state that for every thousand titles that get self-published, maybe there’s two that should have been published.

My Comment: Baal HaSulam, article “Time to Act”:
Prior to the development of the printing industry, there were no false books as there were no writers who were irresponsible, for the simple reason that an irresponsible person is not famous. Therefore, even if one dared to write such a book, no scribe would copy it, as he would not be paid for his labor, which was quite expensive.

But ever since the printing of books has become popular, and writers no longer need scribes to manually copy their books, the price of books has been reduced. This has paved the way for irresponsible writers to publish whatever books they please, for money or for glory.

Therefore, the knowledge of the public has been greatly corrupted. In addition, there is an atmosphere of disregard for books: people think that a quick scan of a serious book in their leisure time is sufficient to master the wisdom.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: A Computer Screen Will Never Replace a Book
Laitman.com Post: Shamati – The Most Valuable Book In the World

Filed under: Books | Add Comment →