Irene Vallejo' has perfectly demonstrated the accuracy of Nuccio Ordine's thesis on the usefulness of the useless. In a screen-obsessed world that often destroys our serenity and the pleasure to be found in slowness, this wonderful author has found a direct line to the relevance of the ancient world and, by extension, to the world of books and many of the things they do to make life worth living. Kant distinguished between what has a price - and what has dignity.