Are People Reading More?人們讀更多書了嗎？

高齊云

Some might say reading a good book is like running away to another world.Through the pages， you can learn new things， meet new people and travel to newplaces—all while sitting in the same place and having a relaxing time.

On April 23 every year， World Book and Copyright Day celebrates theimportance1 of literature2. It was first started by UNESCO in 1995 to promote3reading books.

Celebrating activities like this might be more important these days. Severalstudies over the past ten years have showed that people are reading less than theyonce did.

For example， a 2022 survey found that nearly 50% of US adults4 hadntread a book in over a year. But other studies have found that the COVID-19pandemic5 helped many people find their love of reading again.

In a 2021 survey by a website， nearly 60% of over 5，000 people said theywere reading more since the pandemic began.

And in December 2022， a smaller survey of 945 people in56 countries found that two-thirds of readers said they plannedto read more books in 2023 than in 2022.

However， worlds book sales， including digital6 books， have gonedown by an average7 of about 1% each year since 2017. And whilesales did grow almost 8% in 2021， they went down by 10% in 2022.Its said that they will grow about 2.5% in 2023， to $78 billion.

有人可能會(huì)說，讀一本好書就像逃到另一個(gè)世界。通過這些書頁，你可以坐在同一個(gè)地方休息放松的同時(shí)，學(xué)習(xí)新事物，結(jié)識(shí)新朋友，去新地方旅行。

每年4 月23 日，世界圖書和版權(quán)日紀(jì)念文學(xué)的重要性。它最早是由聯(lián)合國教科文組織于1995 年發(fā)起的，目的是促進(jìn)閱讀。

如今，像這種慶祝活動(dòng)可能更重要。過去十年的幾項(xiàng)研究表明，人們的閱讀量比以前少了。

例如，2022 年的一項(xiàng)調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)，近50%的美國成年人已經(jīng)一年多沒有讀過書了。但其他研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，新冠肺炎疫情促使許多人重新找回了閱讀的愛好。

一家網(wǎng)站2021 年的調(diào)查顯示，5000 多人中有近60%的人說，自疫情爆發(fā)以來，他們的閱讀量有所增加。

2022 年12 月，一項(xiàng)針對(duì)56 個(gè)國家945 人的小型調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)，三分之二的讀者表示他們計(jì)劃在2023 年比2022 年閱讀更多的書。

然而，自2017 年以來，包括數(shù)字圖書在內(nèi)的全球圖書銷量平均每年下降約1%。雖然2021 銷售額確實(shí)增長(zhǎng)了近8%，但在2022 年卻下降了10%。據(jù)說，到2023 年，銷售額將增長(zhǎng)約2.5%，達(dá)到780 億美元。

Notes

1. importance 重要；重要性

2. literature 文學(xué)；文學(xué)作品

3. promote 促進(jìn)；提倡

4. adult 成年人

5. pandemic 大流行病

6. digital 數(shù)字的；數(shù)碼的

7. average 平均水平；一般標(biāo)準(zhǔn)；平均數(shù)；平均值