From the History of books.

It is practically impossible today to imagine our life without books. You can find them in every house. But very seldom people think about a long way the book has come. At first men learned to draw pictures, then letters and alphabetic writing appeared. For a long time people used papyrus and skins of differernt animals to write on. Then the Chinese invented paper. At that time there were not so many books as there are now. All the books were written by hand with pen and ink. Most of this writings were done by monks. Some of the books were very beautiful. But it took much time to write a book. It took many years to make one copy of a book. This made books very expensive. Most people had no books at all and those who had twenty books were considered to be very rich. Atlast men learned how to print. It happened in Germany in the middle of the fifteenth century. The man who invited the art of printing in Russia was Ivan Fedorov. He started his work in Moscow, men moved to other cities. In 1574 he printed the first Azbuka (ABC). This book helped people o learn the alphabet and taught them to read. Now we find it hard to imagine the bookless world of the past. Books are printed in great numbers all over the world. books, I think, we can not live without them. I consider that books are with us during all our life. When I was a child, my parents read them to me. I was pleased to listen to the stories and tales. I learned many interesting things from books. I like to read books about animals, natures, and children. I like to get presents on my birthday, I am happy if it is a book. It does not matter what kind of book it is. You can learn many things from books. I am sure that books play a very important role in my life. In ancient times, books were written by hand.