L2Read

I have said before that I have little memory of my former life as a human, centuries ago. I was ignorant compared to the people of my own time, but I must have been good enough, loyal enough, religious enough, to have earned access to the Kingdom. I believed the priests, for why would they lie? To this day I do not believe they lied: they believed sincerely in what they preached. Back in my earthly body I was illiterate, and so the content of holy books was passed to me indirectly, through priests and friends and family, but it was enough; I memorized verses, prayed, believed, trusted. 

I have learnt to read, and write. An angelic mind processes information faster than a human's. I watched my charge learn to read and write as a human child, and inspired by him I resolved to become, after all my time, literate at last. It did not take long. Michael was safe enough as he grew up: parts of Earth are now extremely safe for human life, compared to previously in history. I had ample time to stare at the human symbols, ink marks made on pulped and flattened wood, to process them, to learn what meanings they hold.

There is no literary culture in Heaven, so far as I am aware. Perhaps the higher-ups, the Powers, Dominions, Cherubs, and Seraphim, have vast libraries of heavenly tomes that the lower orders are kept from. I do not know. There is no need for literature among the singing and praising and relaxing masses of Heaven: there is no need for escapism in Paradise, no need for knowledge when all your needs are met. Indeed, I have no doubt that researching, reading, learning, accruing knowledge would be positively discouraged in Heaven if anyone asked about it.

Solicit not thy thoughts with matters hid;

Leave them to God above; him serve, and fear.

Of other creatures, as him pleases best,

Wherever placed, let him dispose; joy thou

In what he gives to thee, this Paradise

And thy fair Eve; Heaven is for thee too high

To know what passes there; be lowly wise:

Think only what concerns thee, and thy being;

Dream not of other worlds, what creatures there

Live, in what state, condition, or degree;

Contented that thus far hath been revealed

Not of Earth only, but of highest Heaven.

Once the secret of reading is learned, everything written in English was unlocked for me: all the literary culture, the news, the history, the science, the philosophy, everything written in the English language. 

I have done a lot of reading. 

Reading changes you. Every book, every article, every internet comment, adds to you, alters you in some small or substantial way.

I have changed.

Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever...