隨著智能電子時代的來臨，越來越多人唱衰紙質書，有人甚至放話說紙質書必將走向消亡。這些人可能要失望了，因為最新數據顯示，這兩年紙質書銷量一路上漲，應時而生的電子書銷量反而持續下滑。那麼，是什麼成就了紙質書的華麗逆襲？
Readers committed to physical books can give a sigh of relief, as new figures reveal that ebook sales are falling while sales of paper books are growing – and the shift is being driven by younger generations. 紙質書的死忠可以鬆一口氣了，新數據顯示電子書銷量正在下滑，而紙質書的銷量則在上升，而且這一轉變是由年輕一代驅動的。
More than 360m books were sold in 2016 – a 2% jump in a year that saw UK consumers spend an extra 6%, or £100m, on books in print and ebook formats, according to findings by the industry research group Nielsen in its annual books and consumer survey. The data also revealed good news for bricks-and-mortar bookshops, with a 4% rise in purchases across the UK. 根據市場調研公司尼爾森的報告，2016年英國售出超3.6億本書，英國消費者在紙質書和電子書上花費總計達1億英鎊（合8.5億元人民幣），數量和金額分別比上一年多出2%和6%。數據還顯示，實體書店生意好轉，去年英國實體書店銷量總體上漲4%。
While sales through shops increased 7% in 2016, ebook sales declined by 4%. It is the second year in a row that ebook sales have fallen, and only the second time that annual ebook sales have done so since industry bodies began monitoring sales a decade ago. 儘管2016年英國書店銷量總體上漲7%，但是電子書的銷量卻下降了4%。這是電子書銷量連續第二年下跌，自從行業協會十年前開始監控電子書銷量以來，這是電子書年度銷量第二次出現下滑。
In 2015, the Publishers Association found that digital content sales had fallen from £563m in 2014 to £554m, while physical book sales HAD increased from £2.74bn to £2.76bn. The Bookseller also discovered a similar result, finding in its own report about the five biggest general trade publishers in the UK – Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Pan Macmillan and Simon & Schuster – that their ebook sales collectively fell 2.4% in 2015. 2015年，英國出版商協會發現，電子書銷售額從2014年的5.63億英鎊降至5.54億英鎊，而紙質書的銷售額則從27.4億英鎊升至27.6億英鎊。《書商》周刊在其對英國五大出版商（企鵝、阿歇特、哈珀柯林斯、麥克米倫、西蒙與舒斯特）的調查報告中也發現了相似的結果，2015年這五大出版商的電子書銷量整體下降2.4%。
The shift was attributed to the explosion in adult colouring books, as well as a year of high-profile fiction releases, including The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins and Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee. 「Readers take a pleasure in a physical book that does not translate well on to digital,」 the Publishers Association report read. 這一轉變要歸功於成人塗色書銷量的暴漲，以及該年度幾部備受矚目的小說的出版，包括寶拉•霍金斯的《火車上的女孩》和哈珀•李的《設立守望者》。出版商協會的報告寫道：「讀者在紙質書中能享受到電子書所無法傳達的東西。」
But Nielsen’s survey of 2016 attributed the increase in print sales to children’s fiction and to younger generations preferring physical books to e-readers. A 2013 survey by the youth research agency Voxburner found that 62% of 16- to 24-year-olds preferred print books to ebooks. The most popular reason given was: 「I like to hold the product.」 While Nielsen found that 50% of all fiction sales were in ebook format, only 4% of children’s fiction was digital. 然而，尼爾森的2016年度調查將紙質書銷量的上漲歸因於童話書以及更愛讀紙質書的年輕一代。青年研究機構Voxburner 的2013年度調查發現，16到24歲的年輕人有62%更愛讀紙質書而非電子書。他們給出的最普遍的原因是：「我喜歡捧著書本的感覺。」與此同時，尼爾森發現，售出的小說中有50%是電子書，但售出的童話書中只有4%是電子書。
Steve Bohme, research director at Nielsen Book Research UK, who presented the data on Monday ahead of this year’s London book fair, said young people were using books as a break from their devices or social media. 「We are seeing that books are a respite, particularly for young people who are so busy digitally,」 he said. 13日，尼爾森圖書研究公司英國區的研究室主任史蒂夫•伯梅在本年度的倫敦書展舉行前夕發表了這些數據。他表示，年輕人通過閱讀圖書從電子設備和社交媒體中獲得喘息機會。伯梅說：「我們發現書籍成為一種小憩的方式，特別是對那些終日埋頭於電子產品的年輕人而言。」
「Over the last few years we have seen a return to favouring print, partly from what is really successful, this year being non-fiction and children’s books,」 he said. While adult colouring books were popular in 2015, last year saw books about healthy cooking and the latest Harry Potter sell well – which Bohme noted are 「books that tend to translate better in the print form」. 他說道：「過去幾年我們發現人們又開始回歸紙質書，其中一部分原因是這幾年出版了一些非常成功的作品，而今年則是因為非小說類書籍和兒童圖書。」2015年成人塗色書大熱，去年最暢銷的則是健康烹飪類書籍和最新一部《哈利•波特》——伯梅指出「這些書都是紙質書的閱讀體驗更好。」
The Nielsen survey contained another first: mobile phones and tablets overtook e-readers as the most common device used to read ebooks, with readers favouring multifunctional devices over dedicated e-reader brands such as Kindle and Nook. 尼爾森的調查還發現了另一個「第一」：手機和平板電腦首次超越電子閱讀器成為閱讀電子書最常用的設備。比起Kindle和Nook等專用電子閱讀器，讀者更愛用多功能設備看書。
While ebook sales had plateaued, Bohme said it was important to remember that the figures were still higher than they were five years ago, holding a 25% share in 2016, compared with 26% in 2015 and 18% in 2012. The average ebook price increased to £7. 雖然電子書銷量陷入停滯，伯梅表示，我們要記住，電子書的市場佔有率還是比五年前高，2016年電子書佔比25%，2015年佔比26%，而2012年電子書只佔18%。此外，電子書的平均價格上漲到了7英鎊。
Bohme said ebooks sales would continue to decline in 2017, barring a new development in e-reader technology. 「One thing we』ve seen is that when print sales surge, industry confidence in the print increases. If publishers are confident, they can have huge success,」 he said. 「If we have a couple of years of that success story, print sales will keep going up.」 伯梅說，電子書的銷量在2017年會繼續下滑，這將阻礙電子閱讀技術的進一步發展。他說道：「有一件事我們是可以預見的，當紙質書銷量上漲時，行業對紙質書的信心就會增強。如果出版商有信心，他們就會獲得巨大成功。如果這種成功持續幾年，紙質書的銷量將會不斷上升。」
英文來源：衛報翻譯&編輯：丹妮