I was brought up in a house in which books were ever-present. As a little girl, it did not occur to me to question the books in just about every room of the house, and the fact that my family members were always reading. Books were a part of our home, a part of my family.

It was when I was eight years old that the meaning of books really sank in. My father began to come home with cardboard boxes full of books. He explained to me that he had ‘rescued’ these books and given them a home. You see, for political reasons at that time many families were leaving Egypt, and they could not take with them all their possessions. How sad the people must have been, I thought, to part with their books. We took very good care of those adopted tomes – and, importantly, I learned much from them.

From a young age, books were a source of pleasure and escape for me. One of my earliest memories is my father reading One Thousand and One Nights to me at bedtime: the dreams those stories inspired! But as I got older, my parents were also careful to instill in me an understanding of the importance of reading, not merely for pleasure but for education, and I have carried forth their belief throughout my life.

The importance of reading has been expounded since the birth of books right through to the modern era. The Chinese philosopher Confucius wrote: ‘[Y]ou must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.’Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau wrote: ‘Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.’ American President Lyndon B.Johnson said, ‘A book is the most effective weapon against intolerance and ignorance.’ And more recently, the very popular novelist George R. R. Martin opined that: ‘A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.’

I wholeheartedly agree. We must read! We must treasure books!

Have you ever come across someone who tells you, ‘Oh, I’m not a reader. I haven’t read a book since school…’ How do you feel, hearing that declaration? I feel very sad. The non-reader misses out on a whole world of learning that can enrich their daily lives. So much of my learning in life stems from reading; my degree in French literature, for example, taught me much about people and history and how to write for myself.

Some people feel more than sorrow when faced with non-readers; they feel alarm. Novelist Daniel Handler had his narrator Lemony Snicket memorably declare: ‘Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.’ But it is Anne Rice who best encapsulates the difference between keen reader and non-reader: ‘Give me a man or woman who has read a thousand books,’ she said,‘and you give me an interesting companion. Give me a man or woman who has read perhaps three and you give me a dangerous enemy indeed.’

Of course, there is a big difference between not being able to read and not choosing to read. The influential former slave Frederick Douglass wrote in the nineteenth century: ‘Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.’ Sadly, today some people don’t explore the freedom afforded them by books.

Whenever I consider the importance of books, I think about the terrible book burnings of history. Alexandria, the city in which I grew up, was once home to the largest library of the ancient world, until Julius Caesar destroyed it. The German Student Union famously carried out a campaign under the Nazi Regime to destroy books deemed subversive; on 10 May 1933 they burned more than 25,000 ‘un-German’ books. Most would agree that such acts are devastating and sacrilegious. But I will leave you with an apt observation from the writer Ray Bradbury:

‘There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.’