A presentation discussing the issue of Printed Books VS. E-books

 This presentation took place when I was in tenth grade. Because of the fact that this was supposed to be the script of my speech, there were indeed many grammatical mistakes. Before uploading this to my blog, I made a few adjustments, but if there are still some errors, then I am terribly sorry for my mistakes. I didn't cite the quotes correctly, so please also ignore that. Thank you so much for reading my BORING presentation draft!

    Ladies and gentlemen, it’s a great honor to speak here today. Before I start, I`d like to say that please do not fall asleep if you think my presentation is boring. Besides, let`s get started.

The topic of my presentation is related to a behavior that we`ve started to display ever since we were extremely young. This is the behavior of reading. When we were toddlers, at the age when we barely comprehended the approach of walking, our parents started to read books about fairy tales or allegories to us. As time went by, we are now young adults. We are now able to engross ourselves in classic literature within hundreds of pages. As our maturation starts to take place, the development of technology has also changed our ways of reading substantially.

    I firmly believe that everyone has, at least, one electronic device in their home. Maybe it`s a smartphone, maybe it`s an iPad or a laptop. Maybe it`s a kindle just like the one I have in my house. Even from my perspective, I have to admit that reading eBooks are unbelievably convenient. They are light, but can hold thousands of books inside. Besides, eBooks are much cheaper than printed books. But even in this situation, where I spend a great proportion of my time in reading eBooks, printed books in my mind, are still the best things ever exist in this universe.

I`d like to borrow one of Susan Hill`s quotes to illustrate my feeling. “I love the book. I love the feel of a book in my hands, the compactness of it, the shape, the size. I love the feel of paper. The sound it makes when I turn a page. I love the beauty of print on paper, the patterns, the shapes, the fonts. I am astonished by the versatility and practicality of The Book. It is so simple. It is so fit for its purpose. It may give me mere content, but no e-reader will ever give me that sort of added pleasure.” If you never read a printed book, you will never smell the aroma of its new paper and freshly printed ink, you will never appreciate the beauty of its cover, and you will never have the chance to listen to the little sound the book makes when you flip through its pages.

But overall, books, no matter they exist in a way which we can actually touch, or they just hide behind the screen, are still an indispensable part of our life. They arouse our marvelous feelings, they stimulate the vivid imagination of ours, and they exhibit a different world that we are seeking to go into. Just like one of my all-time favorite author George R.R. Martin once wrote in one of his books: “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.” A stunning book is so addictive that even after you finish the story, you can still hear the muffled echo of the words from the characters, you can still empathize the character`s emotions: love, happiness, sadness, anger, and hatred.

Nowadays, we choose to play video games, watch movies and TV shows. We choose everything but reading. But we still complain about how tight our schedules are that there is no time for us to read even for a few minutes. That`s not the truth, we all know that deep down in my heart. There are so many genres for you to pick, there are so many mind-blowing works for you to discover. I love the way Jane Austen talked about books, even her language sometimes is too elegant and ironic for me to comprehend and make me confused a little bit. I still love passionately about Pride and Prejudice of hers. But here is a quote from Northanger Abbey, the first of Jane Austen's novels to be completed for publication “It is only a novel... or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language.”

I own four entirely different editions of Harry Potter, not because I have too much money and just want to spend it and get to show off. It`s their content that intrigued me so much. Sometimes I buy books solely because of their outstanding illustration as well as their fabulous covers. While in other occasions, I will buy books simply because it’s written by one of my beloved authors. From Jane Austen to Harper Lee, from J.K Rolling to J.R.R. Tolkien, from John Green to Bill Bryson, so many outstanding authors and my life is not complete without these people. If you have never read Austen`s work, you won’t be able to imagine the life of British women hundreds of years ago. If you have never get to know To Kill a Mockingbird, you will be less concerned about slavery and racial discrimination. If you have never read Harry Potter, you have probably missed a chance of dreaming about attending a magic school called Hogwarts. See? That`s the power of reading.

To end this seemingly boring presentation, I will give the last quote I have for today. “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” which is by the one and only Dr. Sues. Thank you for listening!