The relative value of books

This anecdote reminds me how valuable a single book can be when we aren't inundated with thousands of books and when we don't have ability to get any book from anywhere in the world easily:

"John Colquhoun [pron. ka-HOON, 1748-1827], former pastor New Church in South Leith, Scotland. Educated at Glasgow University. Shortly after his conversion he walked all the way from Luss to Glasgow, a distance in all of about fifty miles, to buy a copy of Thomas Boston's Fourfold State. This book had a moulding influence on his early Christian life. He came to esteem it next to his Bible. The influence of Boston's teaching was later to permeate his ministry and writings."

I see that book by Boston in the same way. I'm currently reading Colquhoun's Treatise on the Law and the Gospel and getting much from it. It's not just another theology book. The subject matter is foundational, and he's surprising in his complete understanding of it, even the knottier parts like the Mosaic Covenant.