Nowadays there are quite a few people who think that as more and more people have TV sets in their homes, fewer and fewer people will buy books and newspapers. Why read an article in the newspaper, when the TV news can bring you the information in a few minutes and with pictures? Why read a novel, when a play or a film on television can tell you the same story with colour, picture and action? Why read the biographies of famous men and women, when an hour-long television program can tell you that you want to know? However, television has not killed reading. Today newspapers and magazines sell in very large numbers. And books of every kind are sold more than ever before. Books are still a rather cheap way to get necessary information for many people all over the world. Although it is true that some books with hard covers are quite expensive, many books are published today as paperbacks, which are cheap. For example, in some countries a paperback novel is almost always cheaper than an evening in the cinema or at the theatre, and you can keep the book as long as you wish and read it many times. Books in the home are a wonderful source of knowledge, information and pleasure, and some kinds of books should be in every house. Every home library should have some good dictionaries, and a geographical atlas of the world with large maps. It might be expensive, but a good encyclopedia is useful too, because in it you can find any information you are interested in. In addition it is useful to have on your bookshelves other non-fiction books such as history books, science textbooks, cookery books, books about medicine and health and so on. It’s also important to have some fiction on your shelves, too. Then you can relax with a good story, or from time to time, you can take a book of poems off your shelf and read the thoughts and feelings of your favourite poet.
