It is hard to imagine a world without books. Reading represents a mode of thinking and being that may be overshadowed in a contemporary world of web sites, movies, TV shows, CDs and video games. Ultimately, the author concludes that the percentage of serious readers has probably not changed significantly during the past century: what has changed is how books are processed by the reading audience. Admitting that something is inevitably lost in translation, translation to post-Gutenberg forms of delivery, says Kellman, should be alarming only if what is lost is something that cannot be contemplated except though books.