H/650/2411 Answer

* - had to double check;; ** - had to translate

Books in every form and quantity*: from paper books to e-books and audiobooks, from non-fiction* to novels, from [unique rare books]** through to bestsellers, from children books to memoirs*. They accompany us through all phases of life. That's why we pass the books we had as children onto our own children and grandchildren*, and why we keep our old, tattered first school book all the way into old age for emotional reasons. Some books we only read or listen to one, and others we keep on returning back to. They are sold new, used, or second-hand, and passed onto friends, family and charities*.

Germany played a pivotal role in the history of the book. One only has to think of the discovery of letterpress printing with mobile metal letter-forms, or the discovery of the printing press in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg. In Mainz, his birthplace, there is a great museum dedicated to him, where visitors may marvel* at, among other things, a reconstructed printing press, and two examples of a Gutenberg Bible. In the Gutenberg museum there are also insightful** temporary exhibitions about such topics as typography and book design**. The city of Mainz reports that between July 2023 and June 2024, more than 150,000 people from all across the world visited the museum.

[Currently] there are two large book fair** that take place in Germany: the Frankfurt Book Fair*, which opens to the public each autumn, and the Leipzig Books Fair each spring. The Frankfurt Book Fair is one of the most important events of its kind in the world. Authors, publishing houses*, translators, ck and readers, as well as [people] from politics, [culture], [wider?] society, economics, science, and sport. Each year the focus is upon the literature of a specific [chosen?] country. Most recently Italy was the [guest of honour]*; in 2025 it will be the Philippines. The Leipzig Book Fair is the [most well visited] book fair in all of Germany and aims to bring authors and readers together, thereby making it more of a consumer fair**.

In the year 2023 there were more than 60,000 newly published works in Germany. 25 million purchased books [?]. In the same year the German book industry* [obtained]* a revenue* of [some] 10 billion euros. The main primary [channels]* were the [stationary] book shop, which [yielded] 41.8% of the total revenue, and the online book shop, with a market share of 24.8%. The most popular [categories] were fiction**, books for children and teens*, self-help and school textbooks. For the same period e-books made up roughly 6% of revenue. Three million people in Germany bought themselves a book digitally. Audiobooks meanwhile had only a 0.9% share of the total revenue, of which 10% of the purchases were on CD, 48.8% downloaded and 41.4% streamed.

What however the reason for the enduring popularity of books? We are living in a world that is becoming more [complex] by the day. In this world, books help us to orient ourselves, and help provide explanations [~ disentangle?] for [multi-faceted ..]. With a book, you can form your own opinion. And of course they also [bolster? facilitate?] creativity. For instance, a novel take us into a world in which much is left* to our imagination. We [imagine] the plot based solely upon the written or spoken word. A travel guide meanwhile provides suggestions* and tips, of how we can best [design] our holiday. However, what we actually end up doing is fully left to our own discretion*.