As it became clear in the 1990s that digital culture would transform everyday life, many critics predicted that books would go the way of the horse and buggy. Books, and print culture in general, would soon be seen as anachronisms in a world in which information was sent and received by more advanced technology, they held, echoing experts who expressed a similar opinion when television appeared a half-century earlier.

Print culture has not become obsolete, however, and reading books, both as hard copies and in digital form, remains a popular activity. In fact, book sales have been robust in recent years, partly due to the pandemic. Sales of print books rose 9 percent in 2021, according to Publishers Weekly, and the market has remained strong since then.

Why is this so? What is it about books, which have been around in some form since 500 BC (as hand-written scrolls) that make them an essential feature of the human condition?

Bright minds have offered some answers to these questions, one of them being Carmen Martin Gaite, who expressed her views in 1989. “Reading provides insight into a........

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