Why should we bother reading a book?All children say this occasionally.Many of the 12 million adults in Britain with reading difficulties repeat it to themselves daily.But for the first time in the 500 years since Johannes Gutenberg democratised reading,in a world of accelerating technology,increasing time poverty and diminishing attention spans,should they invest precious time sinking into a good book?
我们为什么要费神去读书呢?所有的孩子都曾经问过这个问题.英国有1200万成年人存在阅读困难的问题,他们每天也会这样问自己.从约翰内斯·古腾堡普及阅读至今已有500年了（小编注：1440年到1445年之间,德国人约翰内斯·古滕堡制造了世界上第一台铅活字印刷机）,在这样一个技术不断加速发展的世界,人们感觉时间越来越少,能集中注意力的时间也越来越短,为什么还要把宝贵的时间投入到一本好书上呢?
The discovery that our brains are physically changed by the experience of reading is something many of us will understand instinctively,as we think back to the way an extraordinary book had a transformative effect on the way we viewed the world.This transformation only takes place when we lose ourselves in a book,abandoning the emotional and mental chatter of the real world.That's why studies have found this kind of deep reading makes us more empathetic,or as Nicholas Carr puts it in his essay,The Dreams of Readers,"more alert to the inner lives of others".
研究发现阅读会从生理上改变我们的大脑,当我们回想一下一本特别的书是如何转变我们的世界观的时候,就会立刻地理解这种变化.只有当我们在情感上和精神上忽视现实世界的琐碎生活、完全沉迷于书中的时候,这种转变才会发生.这就是为什么研究发现深度阅读会让我们更加感同身受.或者说,正如美国作家尼古拉斯·卡尔在他的著作《读者的梦》中所描述的那样,“阅读能使人更容易注意到他人的内心生活.”