The Paris Book Fair has opened, and some people are unhappy about it. Israel’s President Shimon Peres delivered opening remarks. “‘Those who want to burn books, boycott wisdom, prevent reflection, block freedom, condemn themselves to blindness, ignorance, to lack of reflection, loss of freedom,’ Peres said in his only reference to the boycott,” according to this AP story which has an error in its opening line. It reports there is “a boycott by some Arab nations upset that it honors Arab writers.” That should be honoring Israeli writers.

Fair organizer Serge Eyrolles said, “Reading must not become a dangerous sport,” even though I think it always has been–that is intellectually and spiritually dangerous. How many people have had their lives changed by reading a book? How many readers have had their eyes opened? And the reverse, how many have been blinded by the lies within books? The library, the bookstore can be dangerous places for ungrounded readers tossed back and forth by the waves of competing ideas.