Have you ever rightly considered what the mere ability to read means? 

That it is the key, which admits us to the whole world of thought and fancy and imagination?

To the company of saint and sage, to the wisest and the wittiest at their wisest and wittiest moments?

That it enables us to see with the keenest eyes, hear with the finest ears, and listen to the sweetest voices of all time?

More than that, it annihilates time and space for us.

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891)