Ten years ago, many thought that the age of the physical book was coming to an end. The objects that had been the companions of millions of readers for hundreds of years were about to die out. Soon, we’d all be reading on little electronic screens and laughing at the memory of places called “libraries” and “bookshops”.
But it seems that rumors of the death of the book are exaggerated. At least in the UK, as The Guardian noted, sales of e-books are falling while sales of physical books are rising. More surprisingly, it’s young people who are buying the most physical books. More than 60 percent of 16-to-24-year-olds preferred print books to e-books. The most popular reason given was: “I like to hold the product.”
Books become very personal objects to lovers of reading. It often starts with the way they acquire them. Many buyers of books like to sign their name on the inside cover when they’ve bought one. And we carry books around with us everywhere.
If the cover gets bent or there’s a stain made on the pages from coffee or food, all the better. These accidents make the book—our book—even more personal. It’s as if readers of physical books make friends with them.
Of course, some could say that the devices on which people read books, like Kindles and iPads, are also objects that we become fond of. But it isn’t quite the same. A Kindle can hold as many pieces of writing as a whole library. But a story we remember from our time turning its pages in our favorite armchair enters our memory forever. Physical books are as precious to some readers as items of jewelry or photographs of family members.
This “friendship” people develop with books isn’t just sentimental. Research has shown that readers remember more information read from physical books than electronic books.
However, there’s no doubt that e-books are here to stay. They aren’t simply a “here today, gone tomorrow” phenomenon. But it’s also certain physical books, which have been in production since the fifteen century, are here to stay, too.
【小题1】What is paragraph 1 about?| A．Rumors of the death of physical books. | B．The bright future of electronic books. |
| C．Advantages of reading physical books. | D．The disappearance of electronic books. |
| A．The growing popularity of e-books. | B．The rising prices of physical books. |
| C．Most young people’s love for them. | D．The production of physical books. |
| A．Negative | B．Positive | C．Hateful | D．Doubtful |
| A．carry a book around with you | B．value the time reading in an armchair |
| C．make friends with a book | D．just read e-books to get information |
| A．Physical books are here to stay. | B．Electronic books are sure to die out. |
| C．People can learn more from e-books. | D．People can be friends with physical books. |
