Used Books, New Books, and THE BOOK
For the last 45 years, this writer has experienced an annual event with a rich history dating much longer than the time he has been influenced by it. For 71 years, since 1949, an annual used book sale has occurred every November in downtown Parkersburg, WV. Unfortunately, like numerous other events scheduled for this year, Trinity Used Book Sale has been cancelled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic that originated in modern China governed by the atheistic Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
It is estimated that 40,000 to 50,000 books are sold annually during this used book sale. Personally, between one and two thousand volumes have been purchased during parts of five decades. Most of these purchased at very meager prices (i.e. 54 volume set of Great Books of the Western World at fifty cents per volume, et al.). Several articles could be written about the book treasures discovered these many years during the first full week of November.
Books that Made the Difference is the title of a small book (117 pages) purchased for a mere 25 cents at the aforementioned sale a few years ago. This book has information in it that is priceless. The book is the report of a twenty year old study conducted by a husband-wife team, Gordon and Patricia Sabine. Both were university journalism professors—she at Ohio State University and he at Virginia Tech. They traveled the country while interviewing nearly 1400 Americans concerning two questions: (1). What book made the greatest difference in your life? (2). What was the difference?
The results from 200 of these interviews were published under the above title in a book sponsored by the Center for the Book associated with the Library of Congress. The edition I found and purchased contains a foreword by the late Daniel Boorstin, Librarian of Congress 1975-1987. Boorstin was a prominent historian instrumental in the creation of the Center for the Book. Repudiating his membership in the Communist Party, with which he was involved during his undergraduate years at Harvard, Boorstin became a prominent conservative thinker in the mid 20th century.
The Bible was the most mentioned book in the “Books that Made the Difference” survey. Among the statements of great value made concerning the Bible is a brief, but powerful, observation of McGeorge Bundy (1919-1996). A former Harvard dean and special assistant to both President John F. Kennedy and President Lyndon B. Johnson, Bundy called the New Testament “the most powerful single volume you encounter” (62, emp. added).
I was reminded of Mr. Bundy’s statement concerning the Scriptures while reading recently from Cal Thomas’ new (2020) book, America’s Expiration Date. Thomas writes the following: “America’s earliest universities—Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Dartmouth—were founded by Christian men who (mostly) lived by biblical principles, and these institutions were established with the goal of educating students by using Scripture as the foundation for their intellectual and spiritual development. Ever since Harvard College was founded in the seventeenth century, its motto has been Veritas, which is Latin for ‘truth.’ Unfortunately, at Harvard and so many other universities, truth has become personal and relative, not objective with an immutable source.” (146)
The immutable source is God who speaks through His imperishable word, the Holy Bible (cf. Isaiah 40:6-8; 2 Timothy 3:14-17; 1 Peter 1:22-25). Thus, the Bible is the most powerful volume we will encounter. The Scriptures are the absolute and objective truth—the foundation for complete intellectual and spiritual development.
Oh, how I will miss the annual visit to that Fall used book sale this year! However, recognizing that the greatest books (old and new) are those that affirm and defend the book—THE BIBLE, I do not want to miss another new book scheduled for publication later this Fall: The Utterance of God. Do not miss your opportunity to get this book!
Charles C. Pugh III
Executive Director