the power of books

The power of books. (and numbers)

This started out as me wanting to explain the full name of this blog…and then my mind just kept running and running and this is where I ended up…

So to begin at the beginning: “the book list” is a little obvious. the whole project revolves around a list of books to read and think about, hence, the book list. fairly simple. the numbers, however, do have a bit of a deeper meaning. 713 is the number of the vault in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone that Harry and Hagrid first visit in Gringott’s. For this reason it is an easy number to remember, and is related to books. It was going to be as simple as that.

But then, like I said, I kept thinking. Within vault 713 is stored a tool to eternal life. While the sorcerer’s stone does not actually exist, I would argue that books are one good way to guarantee maybe not immortality, but a certain kind of lasting life. Books are often said to be the keys to the past, a way to converse with authors long dead and gone. Charles Dickens is no longer alive, but his name lives on. And not just his name, but his thoughts and ideas. Anything he found amusing or witty or profound he no doubt utilized in his work, and we can read those works today just as easily (perhaps actually easier) than when he first put pen to paper and jotted down what was in his mind. The same goes for Jane Austen and literally countless others.  These authors and their thoughts and works are still impacting the lives of countless people alive today. And until such influence ceases, they have a sort of immortality. 

Dumbledore pointedly remarked “I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me…” I think this one statement alone gets to the core of the power of books. Countless people are still loyal to authors who were alive a hundred years ago or more. Hell, we still read and study Plato and Homer. And these authors and people will never be truly gone from this world until none remain loyal to them. This blog/collective will be a way not only to remain loyal to these great writers and thinkers, but to ourselves as well. 

It might not be a stone that turns anything to gold and brews a potion for eternal life, but perhaps with thebooklist0713 we can create a metaphorical vault of our own brand of immortality.