BEIJING, June 6 -- Television and the Internet may be attracting ever more users with their easy and direct information transmission, but books -- the traditional transmitters of information -- remain popular among Shenzheners, a poll by the Bertelsmann Book Club found.

    Bertelsmann solicited answers to the question "What is reading?" Sunday at the Fifth Shenzhen Motor Carnival and International Motor Fair. Among the more than 500 answers submitted, most regarded reading as a "pleasure" or "a way of learning."

    Fu Jianfeng described reading as "the beginning of a good life." Another reader, Liu Xiao, wrote: "Reading is pleasure and leisure." Bryan Ellis, president of Bertelsmann Direct Group China, said: "We want to help people find interest in reading again."

    An earlier survey by the Chinese Institute of Publishing Science found that Chinese interest in reading has declined in the past five years. The survey results, published April 23, World Book and Copyright Day, show that only 5 percent of the Chinese population read regularly. Only 48.7 percent of literate Chinese read at least one book a year in 2005, down 11.7 percent from 1999.

(Source: Shenzhen Daily)