The Last Librarian (The Justar Journal #1)

by Brandt Legg

‘More powerful than armies and police, stronger than guns and bombs, words are what change the world, and that is why they’re always a threat to those that rule with corrupt ways.’

“All it takes is an idea. Harper always said that too. It’s rarely the person with the idea that causes any trouble. Ideas get out there, take on a life of their own. They infect people.”

No one cares about books made of paper, they don’t even read the digital ones that much these days, he thought. And he’d seen the data. The AOI traced every sentence read, when a reader started or stopped, what they highlighted.

You follow politics and the news. Well, I have some news for you. It’s theatre. Sports heroes, film celebrities, rock stars, politicians, controversies of all sorts filling the daily news cycle, it’s all

I just feel that continuing my education on the Field would be like going on a hike in a tuxedo. It’s overkill for what I want to do. ” “’You can never be overdressed or overeducated,’ Oscar Wilde,” Runit said.

“Why did you want to save the books?” Nelson asked, trying to ascertain if Deuce knew about the changing words. “Same reason I keep gold and other physical assets. The ‘virtual’ world is not a place that feels very secure to me. It’s too difficult to tell what is real. It’s too easy to manipulate reality across the digital Field.”

humanity was on a collision course with annihilation. Global warming, water table and ocean contamination, air pollution, nuclear war, and the assorted ailments of over-population were creating an acidic-toxic stew.

“There is too much power in books that they cannot control.”

“Some books are so alive that they never leave you. They only change you.”

Life is too short for retribution, grudges, and hate. Forgiveness is a beautiful power.”

In truth, a library contains the entire universe, and each book is a portal to a different world.”

Runit remembered the philosopher Santayana’s warning, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

been. A corrupt leader needs to control what the people think so they don’t revolt. There are three ways to do that: don’t allow them to learn anything that counters the official line, bombard them with propaganda disguised as news, and finally, give them a distraction, usually an enemy.”

“Bradbury once said, ‘Without the library, you have no civilization.’

Runit thought of his wife, saw her holding Grandyn as an infant, and thought of the post-Banoff author, De Elmers, who wrote, “Nothing changes the world so much as the birth of a child.”

He recalled Mark Twain’s words, “Truth is stranger than Fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.”

Life isn’t a novel.” “Wrong! Life is a novel that no one bothers to write down.”

“Victory always costs more than defeat, and change often commands a high price.”

Dwight Eisenhower’s warning, “Don't join the book burners. Don't think you're going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book...”

“What kind of person burns books? What are they afraid of?” “You’re a librarian. You should know that answer better than most,” Deuce said. “They want certain things forgotten or hidden or never known, and the places where such things are recorded, like books, become dangerous to the corrupt. The ones who want to control what people think. The ones who feel safe only when everyone sees it all their way.”

‘But you can’t make people listen. They have to come round in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up around them.’ Ray Bradbury was wise a hundred years too early.”