2007年年底，Kindle 正式發布。轉眼間，它迎來了自己的十周年生日。Kindle 的命名來自于伏爾泰名言中的智慧之火，他認為書籍能夠點燃智慧之火。電子閱讀器的問世讓讀者能夠直接下載電子版圖書進行閱讀。數據顯示，電子圖書在美國的年市值高達10億美元。與此同時，蘭登書屋總裁杜樂盟 (Markus Dohle) 在今年的法蘭克福圖書展上表示，電子圖書與紙質圖書保持著和平共存的關系，紙質圖書仍然占據市場銷量的80%。據報道，Kindle 的最新一代 Oasis 在兩米深的淡水下仍舊不會受到損害。面對功能越來越強大，上手越來越便捷的電子書，也不知道“書蟲們”在未來是否還會一如既往地擁戴紙質書呢？

Don't Burn Your Books: E-Readers

① At the Kindle's launch, Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder, cited hieroglyphics, the Codex and Guttenberg's invention of the printing press before declaring that the book had officially entered the digital age.

② The e-reader, named after the intellectual "fire" that Voltaire said books can spark, turns ten tomorrow.

③ It was the first device to let users download e-books directly—a market that in America is now worth around $1bn a year.

④ Yet at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair, Markus Dohle, the boss of Penguin Random House, a publisher, observed that print still accounts for 80% of sales.

⑤ He termed it "a healthy co-existence" between print and digital markets.

⑥ Oasis, the Kindle's newest incarnation, can survive under two metres of fresh water.

⑦ Now that there's a "bookshop in your pocket" that copes with the bath and beach, will bookworms be so loyal to their soggy paperbacks?

▍生詞好句

kindle /?k?nd(?)l/: vt. 點燃 (中文指 Kindle 電子閱讀器)

hieroglyphics /h??r??ɡl?f?ks/: n. 象形文字 (尤指古埃及的象形文字)

codex /?k??d?ks/: n. (古代典籍) 手抄本

printing press: 印刷機

incarnation /?nkɑ??ne??(?)n/: n. 化身；體現

cope with: 應付；應對

bookworm /?b?kw??m/: n. 書蟲；愛書之人

soggy /?s?ɡi/: adj. 濕漉漉的

paperback /?pe?p?bak/: n. 平裝本書籍 (文中強調“紙質書”)