Reading 10

Can you imagine a world without books? It may seem like we have always had books, but that is not true. A long time ago, before there were books, people used to write things on pieces of stone. Even before people wrote on stones, people would draw pictures on the walls of caves. In a way, these were the very first books. People wrote things down so that other people could read them later. Many years later, someone invented better ways of writing things down using shapes, lines, and circles. Then, people invented paper. Some people think that learning how to make paper and putting papers together to make books changed the world forever. At first, books were very rare and only very rich people could own them. Books were so special that sometimes you could visit a village and not find one book in the whole village. A few hundred years ago, books became cheaper and more common because of a special machine that made books quickly. Then, it was not only rich people who owned them, People started reading and learning about all kinds of different things. Books were not only used for learning, People also used them to tell stories about far away lands and exciting adventures. Before books, people came together in groups to listen to stories for fun. But with books, a person could sit at home and have fun reading exciting stories alone. Many people thought when movies and radio were invented that nobody would read books anymore. But people still wanted to read books. Then when TV came along, people were sure that books were finished. But people still wanted to read books. Today we have computers. Some people say that computers will be the end of books for sure. But I don't think so.