From Stephen Parrish's blog:

If a book contains history, the book itself is a part of history. An old book is a time capsule. When you open the front cover you open a door to another world, a world accessible through a kind of looking glass made of hardboard and cloth. The author's voice resonates in the reader's head with the same words that resonated in his own as he wrote them. He speaks to the reader from the past. What he witnessed, experienced, learned, and discovered will live forever. You only have to turn a page to travel in time.