ABSTRACT
Some people there are, who being grown, forget the horrible task of learning to read. It is perhaps the greatest single effort that the human undertakes, and he must do it as a child…. For a thousand thousand years humans have existed and they have only learned this trick-this magic-in the final ten thousand of the thousand thousand…. I remember that words-written or printed-were devils, and books, because they gave me pain, were my enemies…. Books were printed demons-the tongs and thumbscrews of outrageous persecution. Then one day, an aunt gave me a book and fatuously ignored my resentment. I stared at the black print with hatred, and then, gradually the pages opened and let me in. The magic happened.
