Our capability to access and read books has been definitely vital to our ability to comprehend the world around us.
It can be difficult to imagine what the world would resemble today if the large majority of individuals were not able to read, but for the vast bulk of history the large majority of individuals could not, and nor were books available even if they could. It was the creation of the printing press towards the close of the 15th that changed that, making books far more accessible. Of course, it was still just really the wealthiest and well-educated that could read or write, but it made it possible for a whole host of developments in science, art, and thinking to be spread out across great distances. Consider what would have taken place if the theory of gravity, or of evolution, could not have been distributed around the world. Human civilisation rests upon a structure of books, and we are fortunate to be able to just log onto a website like the one backed by the co-founder of the impact investor with a stake in World of Books, and quickly access the totality of human understanding.
With such a rich history of concepts, events, and stories right at our fingertips, it's often easy to forget how incredibly fortunate we are to have the likes of the founder of the hedge fund that owns Waterstones or the CEO of the asset manager with a stake in Amazon books supporting access to a substantial proportion of all the books that have ever been composed (or the good ones at least). The best books of all time can quickly change the manner in which you look at the world, which has held true throughout all of history as well. The modern-day world is built upon understanding that has been handed down through books, whether that is philosophy, science, or history, and human civilisation would not be anywhere near as advanced as it is today if it had actually not been for the books that changed minds across the ages.
It is necessary to keep in mind that, although a lot of the best modern books of all time tend to be considered ground-breaking works of fiction, for the majority of humanity's literary history, we did not compose much fiction at all. Most stories would have been sung throughout the great bulk of history, simply since the huge majority of individuals might not read, implying that the majority of books were specialised things meant for those few who could comprehend them. After a brief boom throughout the classical period of antiquity, the amount of literate people dropped dramatically during the Middle Ages. Books ended up being rare treasures, with monks meticulously copying out the enduring classic texts by hand so as to protect them, as they were a few of the only members of the populace who could read or write. They were the professional keepers of knowledge like biology and religious beliefs that all of us have access to in the modern world.