Unit 11: Book.On the subject of reading, Francis Bacon, who lived at about the same time as Shakespeare, wrote these words, “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”This good advice shows how it is possible to read different types of books in different ways.For example, you might pick up a travel book and read a few pages before going to sleep.It is enough to dip into it and read bits here and there.In a word, this is “tasting”.Some stories are for “swallowing”.Imagine that you have found a good story, and, what is even more important, the time to enjoy it.You might be on holiday, or on a long train journey.If it is a good book, you might say, “It’s so good I can’t put it down.”But not all stories belong to this class.Reviewers sometimes describe books as “hard-to-put- down”, or “hard-to-pick-up-again”.Other books are for reading slowly and carefully.If it is a book on a subject that you are interested in, you will want to “chew and digest it”.That does not mean reading it too slowly.When you pick up a book for the first time, check that it is not too difficult.Do not start a book unless you can see from the first few pages that it is one you can easily read and understand.Some people think that as more and more people have television in their homes, fewer and fewer people will buy books to read.Why read when television can bring you all the information and stories with colour, picture and action?But, in fact, television has not killed reading.Today, more books of every kind are sold than ever before.Books are still a cheap way to get information and entertainment, and you can keep a book forever and read it many times.Books in the home are a wonderful source of knowledge and pleasure. TRANSLATESOK
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