"Humanity's past thoughts are my inheritance" writes AL Kennedy. "I need them in order to learn how to prosper in the long term".
As more and more public libraries close their doors, AL Kennedy argues that we must reassess the importance of books.
She says library closures, culled GCSE reading lists, moves towards reducing prisoners' access to books are part of a "perfect storm" which means we're losing books on all sides.
Producer: Adele Armstrong.