Medieval Learning

This week in our Medieval course, we talked about Medieval literature and libraries.  Books were comprised of parchment or vellum paper; the content thereon was hand printed. In short, a great deal of work went into making these books in the years before the printing press. But surely, this labor of love that went into making the books made them that much more precious to scholars and students. 

Our class had a really fine discussion about reading today.  Bookstores are everywhere: Books-a-Million, Borders, Barnes and Noble--and of course--Amazon!  Books are easy to find and often relatively inexpensive.  Why then, is reading at the bottom of everyone's "to-do" list?  My favorite place on our campus is our library, not just because of the marvelous staff, but because of all of the books that are there! I know we can't all be bibliophiles, but I lament the fact that books and reading are being crowded out by computers, Kindles, ipods, cell phones and all manner of other devices that teach us to lose our ability to focus and concentrate.

Perhaps we can learn from the example of these Medieval scholars--take the time to read and to enjoy the privilege of learning.