My introduction to these series of books came from my elementary school days at Greenbrook Christian Academy. Whenever there was a free reading assignment I was drawn into the Landmark books because they always dealt with something historical. Each book that I was able to read had exciting stories that brought out significant historical events and people. Within a few well crafted pages, new worlds were explored and a greater knowledge of history gained without even trying. As I have grown older I continue to find that these children's books offer a historical perspective that somehow breaks through the more adult oriented historical writings. Certainly I'm not going to quote a children's book if I need to do some research on a specific subject but I'm not inclined to read a Landmark book to gain a synopsis of an historical event or figure.
When Greenbrook Christian Academy closed I took as many of the Landmark books that meant so much to me for my own. Whenever I visit a used bookstore I look for the old Landmark books, especially ones with the dust jacket. When I discover one of the books it's as if a small treasure has been found. When the internet became a place to find things that we had thought to be long gone, my search for Landmark books became something different.
On the internet, what I thought was a treasure to be searched and hunted for became nothing more than someone's excess. My gold may have been nothing more than fools gold. It became very easy to just pay someone ninety-nine cents for five Landmark books than to try and find the same books in some used book store. Hey, it's just convenience right? You find what you're looking for and you don't even have to go someplace. But for some reason that just didn't seem right.
I'm not against buying things off of the internet but the value of the experience of finding a Landmark book in a used bookstore was something that I did not want to trade for convenience. I am beginning to find that same line of thinking in many other areas of my life. I know that Google earth can take me anywhere in the world but that doesn't mean that I have had the experience of going to places in the world.
As we move into another decade there is going to be allot of new and exciting things that will take experiences that we once had and replace with something new. Just think about all of the things the last ten years has brought us. I hope that in these next ten years we don't trade all of our experiences for something that is not an experience at all.
