More than 60 years ago this book was published, and although I can't compare the situation of the fifties (my parents weren't even born) to nowadays, we probably more than ever live in a society which undervalues knowledge and original thinking in general, and we are are all so ready to consume simple and vain ideas on the many ways we have at our disposal (TV, Internet, movies, and rarely books) . This novel centers in the importance of books, but now that we have so much more media, I wonder if we are better or worse.