the value of old books

I went to this book store the other day called The Haunted Book Loft. It was this wonderful little book store downtown that sold used books. I started thinking what is so great about having and old used book. I think it is the fact that someone else has experienced it before. You are not the first, many people have picked up this same book and delved into its secrets.  You could tell which books were most popular by how many copies they had. It seemed older books were more common in this shop. That got me thinking, why read older books? what can they teach us about today? I know that seems like a silly question but there are hundreds of new books that come out that maybe you dont ever need to pick up Dickens, Austen, Dante, Shakespeare, or Aristotle. To me though, that if you look at books of the past and books today there are big differences. Now I am not saying that there are not exceptions but for the most part, in my opinion, most of the books famous today lack the depth and intelligent writing of the past. I dont think Dante was worried about being politically correct or Austen wondered how much money she could make with her next book. Writing seems to have changed somehow. 

But in talking about what we can learn from this older books, you have to actually read them . You cant watch  a movie or read spark-notes. and yes i know I have personally done both to avoid reading a book. We just finished up Dante in class and I was desperately trying to figure out how i could learn from it. Not just learning about his poetic descriptions of hell or learning about the late medieval culture in Italy. Those are important features to Dante but there is something more, something deeper. I haven't quite figured out all of what it is. I'm learning about how sin can become something that, to the sinner is not evil but  just a part of their life. The evil that the sinner did on earth was part of who they were, the sin reached their souls and made them different men. It is interesting to turn it back around on yourself and think about who you are and what defines you. Is that what Dante wanted? For you to reflect on yourself? Did he want late medieval people to realize where they were headed. Or can you just read it as this exciting adventure of a man on a journey to hell? would it be wrong to take the story so literally? 

Reading literature from another time and place makes you a broader person. Of course you are coming at the text with a contemporary mind set, which can sometimes get in the way of you as a reader trying to understand exactly what the author means. But your contemporary mind set can bring and interesting perspective to the table. What i mean is, you can relate to the earliest of texts if you come to it with an open mind wanting to learn. Which i think is the attitude we should all have toward literature. Its not something simply to try to hurry and finish but something to relish and appreciate.