By Joshua Phillips, Age 13

My favorite lecture from the History of the World Mega-Conference was Mr. Potter’s lecture on “The History of Libraries and Books.” Mr. Potter used the analogy that the Bible is our sun and other Christian books are the moon and stars. The rest of the books are galaxies to be looked at in light of the Bible.

Mr. Potter spoke on the many great men of America who loved books and used them to make them better men. For example, General Henry Knox, of the War for Independence, gathered all his knowledge of war from the bookstore he owned! In addition, Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt, who read one book a day, would have men carry a small library through Africa for him.

We also learned about libraries from around the world. During the rise and fall of China, the emperor in power would destroy all the books in order to control the history. In defense, the people would carve the books into the walls of caves and cover them with dust to keep them from being destroyed. The library of Alexandria, which was burned four times, would hire people to be scribes for life. In return, they paid no taxes and were given food and a pension.

I love to read books myself, so it was a great blessing to study this subject with Mr. Potter. I hope you will come to the next History of the World Conference and come to Jamestown for America’s birthday in ‘07!