Are People Reading More?人们读更多书了吗？

高齐云

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.

有人可能會说，读一本好书就像逃到另一个世界。通过这些书页，你可以坐在同一个地方休息放松的同时，学习新事物，结识新朋友，去新地方旅行。

每年4 月23 日，世界图书和版权日纪念文学的重要性。它最早是由联合国教科文组织于1995 年发起的，目的是促进阅读。

如今，像这种庆祝活动可能更重要。过去十年的几项研究表明，人们的阅读量比以前少了。

例如，2022 年的一项调查发现，近50%的美国成年人已经一年多没有读过书了。但其他研究发现，新冠肺炎疫情促使许多人重新找回了阅读的爱好。

一家网站2021 年的调查显示，5000 多人中有近60%的人说，自疫情爆发以来，他们的阅读量有所增加。

2022 年12 月，一项针对56 个国家945 人的小型调查发现，三分之二的读者表示他们计划在2023 年比2022 年阅读更多的书。

然而，自2017 年以来，包括数字图书在内的全球图书销量平均每年下降约1%。虽然2021 销售额确实增长了近8%，但在2022 年却下降了10%。据说，到2023 年，销售额将增长约2.5%，达到780 亿美元。

Notes

1. importance 重要；重要性

2. literature 文学；文学作品

3. promote 促进；提倡

4. adult 成年人

5. pandemic 大流行病

6. digital 数字的；数码的

7. average 平均水平；一般标准；平均数；平均值