In, "In Defense of the Book," William H. Gass explains how books and libraries are essential to humans, and that a book is more than just pages filled with words; a book shows human integrity and spirit. Gass has structured his piece into five main sections. The first section is a rather large anecdote pertaining to the book, "Discoveries." In the second section, the essay describes the concept of libraries. He uses vivid detail to describe the libraries, such as, ".walls of each home would seem to be made of books; wherever one looked one would only see spines" (56). He further goes on to explain how each book has it's own personality or mind. In the third section, Gass explains how books are more than just books, they are hosts to their own spirit. Gass uses a good example of Pathos to support his thoughts about libraries: "The Formula is: a great library will attract a great faculty, and a great faculty. and the team gets even better" (58). In the fourth section, Gass explains the value of books versus technology. He explains on page sixty-one how he would rather read your book than hear your answering machine message, because the book has more substance. In the last section, he clearly shows the value of libraries. The type of support used in the essay is historical and past experience. Some noteworthy techniques that Gass used we analogies, such as, on page fifty-six, "We share their wealth the way we share a public park." He used this when describing a library. In my opinion, Gass is correct with his insight and we all need to understand the value of a book; understand that books are essential to out life. .
