7 Reading- B1

reading

Right now, I am looking at a shelf full of relics, a collection of has-beens, old-timers, antiques,
fossils. Right now I am looking at a shelf full of books. Yes, that’s right. If you have some spare cash (the
going rate is about $89) and are looking to enhance your reading experience, then I highly suggest you
consider purchasing an e-reader. E-readers are replacing the books of old, and I welcome them with
open arms (as you should).


If you haven’t heard of an e-reader and don’t know what it is, then please permit the following
explanation. An e-reader is a device that allows you to read e-books. An e-book is a book-length
publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and
readable on computers or other electronic devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed
book, e-books can also be born digital. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines the e-book as “an
electronic version of a printed book,” but e-books can and do exist without any printed equivalent.
So now you know what an e-reader is. But you still may be wondering why they put printed books
to shame. E-readers are superior to printed books because they save space, are environmentally friendly,
and provide helpful reading tips and tools that printed books do not.


E-readers are superior to printed books because they save space. The average e-reader can
store thousands of digital books, providing a veritable library at your fingertips. What is more, being the
size and weight of a thin hardback, the e-reader itself is relatively petite. It is easy to hold and can fit in a
pocketbook or briefcase easily. This makes handling ponderous behemoths such as War and Peace,

Anna Karenina, and Les Misérables a breeze. Perhaps the only drawback to the space-saving aspect of
an e-reader is that it requires you to find new things to put on your shelves.
In addition, e-readers are superior to books because they are environmentally friendly. The
average novel is about 300 pages long. So, if a novel is printed 1000 times, it will use 300,000 pieces of
paper. That’s a lot of paper! If there are about 80,000 pieces of paper in a tree, this means it takes almost
4 trees to make these 1000 books. Now, we know that the average bestseller sells about 20,000 copies
per week. That means that it takes over 300 trees each month to sustain this rate. And for the super
bestsellers, these figures increase dramatically. For example, the Harry Potter book series has sold over
450 million copies. That’s about 2 million trees! Upon viewing these figures, it is not hard to grasp the
severe impact of printed books on the environment. Since e-readers use no trees, they represent a
significant amount of preservation in terms of the environment and its resources.


Finally, e-readers are superior to books because they provide helpful reading tips and tools that
printed books do not. The typical e-reader allows its user to customize letter size, font, and line spacing. It
also allows highlighting and electronic bookmarking. Furthermore, it grants users the ability to get an
overview of a book and then jump to a specific location based on that overview. While these are all nice
features, perhaps the most helpful of all is the ability to get dictionary definitions at the touch of a finger.
On even the most basic e-reader, users can conjure instant definitions without having to hunt through a
physical dictionary.
It can be seen that e-readers are superior to printed books. They save space, are environmentally
friendly, and provide helpful reading tips and tools that printed books do not. So what good are printed
books? Well, they certainly make nice decorations.

Quiz: Check your reading comprehension

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