Bibliofiles: Give the gift of reading (even to yourself)

In the past year, I've seen people reading books on trains, planes and buses. I've sighted them in libraries, on park benches and at malls, in restaurants and at coffee shops, standing on street corners, in hotel lobbies, at the beach, in line at the bank and in the market. And all of these sightings have one thing in common: All of the readers were reading actual books, not books on devices.

The book lives.

I started this column 12 years ago. Back then, the pundits and industry watchers and just pretty much anyone you asked would give a gloomy assessment of the book industry, even going as far to say that it was doomed. E-readers were just being introduced and the end of the paper book was prophesized.