Surely there are now reasons why (1)____ book ought to be dead, or at least very badly injured. If so, why does it not show proper respect for these reportedly less literate times (2)_____ die out? There is clearly more than a single answer to this question. Firstly, we have more leisure time than we (3)______ to, and people are generally living longer, which means there is more time to do more (including reading books). As (4)______ as this, there is the strength of the book as a tradition. We are all too dismissive of traditions in our modern world, but they can have very strong pull (5)_____ us.