The book is dead. Technology has killed it. The libraries of the world are dooming to bec

ome museums. Americans, however,【M1】______ attend to bring an either-or mentality to most things. The invention【M2】______ of television led to predictions about the demise of radio. The making of movies was to be the funeral bell of alive theater;【M3】______ recorded music, the end of concerts. All these forms still exist—sometimes overshadowed by their siblings, but not smothered by them. And with the direst predictions, reading【M4】______ continues to be part of the life of the mind. Theres no question that reading off-paper, as I think of it, will increase in years to come. A library that got 10 as gifts【M5】______ reported that within a half hour they had all checked out. And【M6】______ theres no question that once again we will be treated to lamentations suggesting that true literacy has become the lost art. The difference this time is that we will confront with elitism from【M7】______ both sides. Not only have literary purists now complain of the【M8】______ evanescent nature of letters onscreen, the tech fanatics have become equally disdainful of the old form. Perhaps we should look past both sides to concern ourselves with function instead of form. I am cheered by the Gallup poll in【M9】______ which asks a simple question: do you happen to be reading any books or novels at present？ In 1952 a merely 18 percent of【M10】______ respondents said yes. The last time the survey was done, in 2005, that number was 47 percent. So much for the good old days.

【M1】