Like anything else, books are a source of opinions for everyone. Do you like them? Reading them? Using them as a coaster for your soft drink as you watch the movie version instead? Either way, there's no mistaking the importance of books. They were, after all, the first form of mass communication. Books had many impacts on society when the printing of words became more efficient in 1450, the creation of the metal movable type press. A few of the impacts were increased literacy among all classes, protestant reformation, and the spreading of news, political ideas, art and music. Are books important? Of course they are. They can change people's lives, they create culture and leave behind something in an archive type of way. Books certainly are important and always have been, dating before any type of printing invention was made.