Books, and the quantity of individuals who could read them, have been definitely crucial to human development over the centuries.
It is very important to remember that, although lots of the best modern books of all time tend to be regarded as ground-breaking works of fiction, for the majority of mankind's literary history, we did not write much fiction at all. The majority of stories would have been sung throughout the great majority of history, just due to the fact that the large bulk of people could not read, suggesting that many books were specialised things meant for those few who might understand them. After a short boom throughout the classical era of antiquity, the amount of literate people dropped significantly throughout the Middle Ages. Books ended up being rare treasures, with monks fastidiously copying out the surviving traditional texts by hand so as to maintain them, as they were a few of the only members of the populace who were able to 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.
With such a rich history of concepts, events, and stories right at our fingertips, it's sometimes simple to forget how exceptionally lucky 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 the very least). The best books of all time can quickly change the way that you take a look at the world, which has actually been true throughout all of history also. The contemporary world is built on understanding that has been passed 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 throughout the ages.
It can be tough to imagine what the world would be like today if the large bulk of individuals were unable to read, but for the vast majority of history the large bulk of individuals could not, and nor were books accessible even if they could. It was the innovation of the printing press towards the close of the 15th that altered that, making books a lot more available. Naturally, it was still only really the richest and well-educated that could read or write, but it allowed an entire host of developments in science, art, and thinking to be spread out throughout great distances. Consider what would have happened if the theory of gravity, or of evolution, could not have been distributed across the globe. Human civilisation rests upon a foundation of books, and we are lucky 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 gain access to the totality of human understanding.