One small library card can open worlds no passport ever could.
“What an astonishing thing a book is,” wrote Carl Sagan. With that single reflection, he captured the quiet miracle we often take for granted. A book is simple—paper, ink, and binding—yet with one glance, you enter the mind of another human being. Sometimes that mind belongs to someone who lived centuries ago. Across time and space, an author speaks clearly and silently inside your head. Books break the shackles of time. They are proof that humans are capable of working magic.
One of the most loving things my mother ever did for me was walk a mile and a half—because we didn’t own a car—to the local library when I was in first grade. She made sure I got a library card. That small rectangle of paper changed my life.
We were poor. We lived in a four-room cold-water flat next to railroad tracks. But through books, I traveled the world. I crossed oceans, climbed mountains, solved mysteries, and met heroes who showed me courage, kindness, and possibility. Books quietly told me something essential: there was more to life than the limits of my surroundings.
That early gift turned me into a lifelong reader. Decades later, I still use the library regularly. Not a day goes by without a borrowed book nearby—waiting to teach me something new, comfort me, or stretch my imagination just a little further.
Reading does more than entertain. It expands empathy, sharpens thinking, and reminds us that others have faced hardship, dreamed big, and endured long before we arrived. Read, read, and read some more. You’ll have adventures. You’ll meet heroes and villains. And you’ll discover that the world is far larger—and more hopeful—than it first appears.
Reader Question (to inspire reflection)
What book first showed you that life could be bigger than the world you knew?
