The Future and Libraries According to Neil Gaiman

"We have an obligation to imagine." - Neil Gaiman 

Neil Gaiman's latest, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is one of my favourite books this fall. With his book fresh in my mind, I read
his recent Reading Agency lecture in England and couldn't agree more with his top arguments defending children's literacy, the freedom to read and the importance of libraries.

When you consider the recent Banned Books Week last month, I think advocates like Neil Gaiman are beneficial to promoting the freedom for children to read what they want, when they want. Although he admits to allowing his 11-year-old to read Stephen King's Carrie probably too soon, Gaiman argues the more we shelter our children from books, the less appealing reading will become for them. He also makes a clever analogy that printed books are like sharks - who have existed before and outlived dinosaurs, because there's nothing like them. In the wise words of Neil Gaiman, real books are "good at being books and there will always be a place for them."

I couldn't have said it any better! To read more about Gaiman's lecture, click here.