閱讀數字化，Kindle更普及、書店在消失——數字閱讀時代已經來臨。未來，人類的閱讀將發生怎樣的轉變？科技將如何影響文明？歡迎關注本期慢讀。

1 [再見，早餐桌上的報刊]

散發著新鮮油墨味的報紙曾陪伴了數代人的早餐，但這份墨香味的佐餐調料不久或將"變味"。出版業迎來了姍姍來遲的數字時代，正在經歷翻天覆地的激變。

For many generations, the ink smell of a freshly printed newspaper has been the table salt in the morning that accompanied most of their breakfasts. But it may soon be no longer, as the print industry braces for a late entry into the digital party, marching at a furious pace.

拿美國最知名的報紙《紐約時報》來說，紙質版的日發行量繼續下跌，而數字用戶持續增長。今年第2季度，《紐約時報》的付費數字用戶超過了73.8萬，同比增長了40%。

Take America's best-known newspaper, The New York Times, as an example. While its daily print circulation continues to decline, its digital subscriber base kept growing. In Q2, NYT's paid digital subscribers grew by 40% year-on-year to over 738,000.

今年上半年，美國報刊亭的雜志銷量也下滑了10%，但電子版雜志的銷量激增了89%，達到了1020萬。

Magazine newsstand sales in the US also dropped by 10% in the first half of 2013 while sales of the digital replica editions surged 89% to 10.2m.

全球范圍內，已有300多家出版商在過去2年中設立了各式各樣的網絡付費墻，用以彌補紙質版發行量縮減帶來的利潤損失。

Around the globe, more than 300 publishers having erected different versions of paywalls in the past 2 years to offset revenue lost from declines in print circulation.

[電子書受到青睞]

在圖書市場方面，盡管紙質書擁躉眾多，廉價便利的電子書正在逐漸占據市場。

As regard to the book market, although printed books have many die-hard fans, the e-book is gradually gaining market share with its convenience and bargain price.

美國出版協會的一份報告稱，2011年，美國電子書銷量暴增252%，2012年繼續增長27%。去年，電子書閱讀器和平板的持有率也從18%增至33%。電子書銷售目前占據美國圖書市場1/4的份額。

A report from the Association of American Publishers says sales of e-books jumped a whopping 252% in 2011 and grew 27% in 2012 in the US. Those owning an e-book device or tablet jumped from 18% to 33% last year. E-books now represent 25% of total book sales in the US.

據普華永道公司預計，電子書的銷售額將在2017年超過紙質書達到82億美元，而紙質書的銷售額在這幾年中將減少一半以上。

PwC estimates that trade e-books will drive $8.2b in sales by 2017 - surpassing projected print book sales, which it thinks will shrink by more than half during that period.

2 [紙版瘦身]

紙版沒有窮途末路。數據顯示，電子書銷量今年第一季度僅增長了5%，與前幾年相比，增速大大降低。發行量流向數字版本不可避免，但若將紙版想象成一只超重的野獸，發行量的減少即意味著甩掉贅肉。瘦身以后，紙版將更洗練、更明晰、也更耐看。當讀者向數字版轉移后，紙質出版物將會越來越具有價值。

Print is not dying. Data shows sales of e-books rose just 5% in the year ending in the first quarter of 2013, a big slip in growth compared with years before. A circulation flow toward digital edition is inevitable, but think of print like an overweight beast, and the circulation decrease as shedding excess weight. The result is a leaner, more defined, more beautiful creature. What we buy in print will be increasingly valuable as readers shift to the digital realm.

信息類的很多紙質出版物將變得非常次要，它們太慢太笨重。主要報刊雜志及大多數批量生產的書都將出現越來越少的紙質版，但剩下的那部分將會保留紙質出版，而它們將扮演的角色是藝術品。

Print, for many types of information, will become far less important. It's too slow and too clunky. Major newspapers and magazines, and most mass-produced books will continue to see diminishing print runs, but the rest will survive to play the role of art.

[紙書，藝術的存在]

美國不少精品出版社都出版手工書籍，往往以新小說或詩歌為載體。這些出版物多半是創意階層出于興趣自我發揮的產物，他們不考慮目前這些盈利模式，所用的也都是數字時代以前的"原始技術"。

Many fine presses around the US put out handcrafted products, often featuring new fiction or poetry. These publications are often labors of love, driven more by an ascendant (優越的) creative-class interest in pre-digital technologies than any existing profit model.

當紙書變得越來越少見，有些人將會為了收藏而購買，有些則僅僅為了滿足一種高級的感官體驗。包含榮格本人手跡和自繪插圖的復寫版《紅書》定價195美元，但2010年在美國仍然大賣。當讀者認為一本書本身作為一個物品具有特殊性，他們就會愿意掏錢。

As paper books become more unusual, some will continue to buy them as collectors' items, others for the superior sensory experience they afford. Carl Jung's Red Book, in a facsimile edition featuring hand-painted text and illustrations, sold well in America in 2010 despite its $195 price tag. When readers believe that a book is special in itself, as an object, they can be persuaded to pay more.

書架同樣不會消失。下一代紙書將會在書架上與墻上的繪畫就美學品味、價位和韻味一決高下。

Bookshelves will survive too. The next generation of paper books on the shelves will likely rival the art hanging beside them on the walls for beauty, expense, and "aura".

3 [閱讀:從孤獨到社交]

在紙書時代，閱讀是一件更孤獨的事。一本實體書一次只能由一個人默默地讀完。讀完以后，合上書頁，一個人享受寂靜。沒有聊天窗口和提示彈出，紛擾我們內心的思考。

With print, reading is a more solitary pursuit. A physical book is a solitary experience that can only be enjoyed by one person at a time. When we finish a book, we close the cover and are left in peace. No chat windows or alerts attempt to distract us from our internal thinking processes.

但Kindle、iPad等各類平板電腦和電子閱讀器讓閱讀變得更社交。許多設備為電子書閱讀提供了社交功能或應用，讀書的同時你可以評注、分享或討論。這為尋找圈子提供了便利，但卻擠壓了獨立思考的空間。

Thanks to Kindle, iPad and other tablets and e-readers, reading now becomes more social. Many devices offer social features or apps that allow us to annotate, share and discuss with people at the same time we read e-books. It's a good way to find circles, but it also give readers few opportunities of independent thinking.

[深度閱讀丟失]

塔夫斯大學教授瑪莉安·沃夫哀嘆"深度閱讀"丟失。電子閱讀器使得長篇閱讀易受同時進行的多個任務干擾。用iPad讀書，這種形式注定了閱讀要分心。英語教授稱，當今學生都讀不下去長篇大論的19世紀小說，或者根本不愿去讀。

Tufts University child development professor Maryanne Wolf laments the loss of what she calls "deep reading." E-readers is making long-form reading become subject to the same multitasking options. Read a book on an iPad and the distractions are embedded in the physical form itself. English professors report that today's students are unable or unwilling to read lengthy 19th-century novels.

許多新研究還強調，不但是電子設備使人們對紙書的專注力下降，而且人們在對著電子屏幕時首先自己就不那么用心。很多人就潛意識中就認為在平板上讀書不如讀紙書更嚴肅。圣何塞州立大學的一項研究得出結論稱，與讀紙書相比，讀電子書時人們更喜歡走捷徑，他們將更多時間花在瀏覽和搜尋關鍵詞上，而且他們更可能把文章只讀一遍。

An emerging collection of studies emphasizes that in addition to screens possibly taxing people's attention more than paper, people do not always bring as much mental effort to screens in the first place. Subconsciously, many people may think of reading on a computer or tablet as a less serious affair than reading on paper. A study from San Jose State University concluded that people reading on screens take a lot of shortcuts - they spend more time browsing, scanning and hunting for keywords compared with people reading on paper, and are more likely to read a document once, and only once.

4 [你也可以出書]

在數字時代，出版不再需要專業技術，任何人都能出版自己想出的書，并用它來賣錢。下載亞馬遜的CreateSpace等應用，你就可以出版自己的電子書，或者加上自己的理解重新編排其他書。未來的閱讀將是鏈接、翻譯、共同創造和發現。

In the digital age, it doesn't take professional skills to be publishers. Anyone can publish books as they like and sell them to make profits. Using apps such as Amazon's CreateSpace, you can publish your own e-book or you can remix other books in your interpretation. The future of reading will be the linking, translating, co-creating, and discovering.

DIY出版在美國已經蓬勃發展，而且，DIY出版的電子書甚至在今年前4個月4次登上了電子書銷量榜的榜首。

Self-publishing is already thriving in the US. A self-published title was the top e-book seller 4 times in the first 4 months this year.

[書不再是'書']

過去，書被定義為裝訂在兩個封皮之間的出版物。如今，書的紙頁在消失，只留下了一個概念性的結構——需要一定時間體驗完成的一堆有主題的文本。

In the past a book was defined as anything printed between two covers. Today the paper pages of a book are disappearing. What is left in their place is the conceptual structure of a book - a bunch of text united by a theme into an experience that takes a while to complete.

當出版商千方百計地將多媒體內容融進數字出版，讀者也不會僅僅停留于分享書中某個段落，他們還會分享插圖、表格，以及電影、動畫等豐富的內容。這就會導致一個問題：到底什么才是真正的書？無論是從多媒體的內容屬性，還是"讀者"能不能分享的角度，"書"和"雜志"不久即將在很大程度上幾乎等同于內容豐富的網站。

As publishers grapple with the multimedia issues inherent in digital publishing, readers won't just share passages from books, but illustrations, charts, and rich content such as movies and animations. And this will lead to the question: What really is a book, really is anyway? "Books" and "magazines" will soon, in large part, become indistinguishable from the richest of websites, both in terms of multimedia content, and "readers'" ability to share that content.

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（來源：中國日報網雙語手機報 編輯：丹妮）