調查顯示 電子書銷量持續下滑 年輕一代愛上紙質書

Readers committed to physical books can give a sigh of relief, as new figures reveal that e-book sales are falling while sales of paper books are growing - and the shift is being driven by younger generations.

實體書的死忠可以鬆一口氣了，最新數據顯示電子書的銷售額正在下滑，而紙質書的銷售額則在上升，而且這一轉變是由年輕一代驅動的。

More than 360m books were sold in the UK in 2016 - a 2% jump in a year that saw UK consumers spend an extra 6% on books in print and e-book formats, according to findings by the industry research group Nielsen in its annual books and consumer survey.

行業研究公司尼爾森的年度圖書與消費者調查發現，2016年，英國售出超過3.6億本圖書，同比增長2%；英國消費者在紙質書和電子書上的花費增加6%。

While sales through bookshops increased 7% in 2016, e-book sales declined by 4%.

2016年書店的銷售額上漲7%，電子書的銷售額卻下降4%。

Nielsen's survey attributed the increase in print sales to children's fiction and to younger generations preferring physical books to e-readers.

尼爾森的調查將紙質書銷售額的上漲歸因於兒童小說以及比起電子閱讀器更偏愛紙質書的年輕一代。

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."

青年研究機構Voxburner2013年的一項調查發現，在16到24歲的年輕人中，有62%的人更愛讀紙質書而非電子書。他們給出的最普遍的原因是：“我喜歡捧着書本的感覺。”

While Nielsen found that 50% of all fiction sales were in e-book format, only 4% of children's fiction was digital.

尼爾森發現，售出的所有小說中有50%是電子書，但售出的兒童小說中只有4%是電子書。

"We are seeing that books are a respite, particularly for young people who are so busy digitally," said Steve Bohme, research director at Nielsen Book Research UK.

尼爾森圖書研究英國區研究室主任史蒂夫·伯梅表示：“我們發現書籍成了一種小憩的方式，特別是對那些終日埋頭於電子產品的年輕人而言。”

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，成爲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。