Someone into the latest gadgets might well answer: "Who cares? And by the way, please don't disturb me while I am reading 'Fifty shades of grey' on my new Kindle."
A scientific minded person might well respond with: "What a stupid question! Books can't die because they weren't even alive in the first place!"
A politician will be unable to provide a straight answer, but is likely to feel obliged to form a working group, who may report back in 12 to 18 months.
But if you ask almost any parent, who routinely is trying to encourage a child to read and learn about the world, the answer is almost certainly going to be: "No, books are live and well, and a great way of enticing a child into learning."
Two weeks ago, I received an email from Allison, who lives in Oxford. Allison wrote about how she had enjoyed seeing her 9 year old son scribbling the answers to the puzzles in "Global Warming for Young Minds" directly onto the paper.
Thank you Allison for making a great point.
The fact is that children simply can't scribble their ideas or answers down onto a Kindle or Nook. And this is why children's books and books in general are here to stay.
LONG LIVE THE BOOK and SCRIBBLING CHILDREN!
Hampshire 2013
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