Words are not given to Man in order to conceal his thoughts.

Several weeks ago the world witnessed the passing of the Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese author José Saramago.

      "Words," the novelist once observed with dry simplicity, "are not given to Man in order to conceal his thoughts."

      Saramago appreciated the core function of language, allowing us to communicate with each other for survival, and our human need to share our thoughts and ideas.

      Nowhere is this critical exchange and compression of meaning so powerfully captured as in the book.

      And that is why, despite every new form of serial information made possible by electronic technologies, reading is. and literacy will remain. the critical human skill in the 21st century.