The new big thing?

从名人传记到旅行指南，"口袋书"体积虽小却无所不包，风行一时。
　WHILE some people call them silly rubbish, others regard them as a valuable collectables. Whatever people think about them, they cannot deny the popularity of the minibook.
　From coffee houses to local shops, from florists to garages, the tiny books are sold everywhere in the US.
　According to the American Miniature Book Society, a book should be no more than 7.35 centimeters tall, wide or thick. This gives minibooks the nickname pocket book or hand book.
　Tiny as they are, the books have covered almost all the popular topics include celebrity biographies, pets and dieting.
　Running Press, who have published 40 million minibooks in the US, said that "A Little Sip of Chicken Soup for the Soul" has been one of the top-sellers for years.
　"You can put the book into your pocket and look at it any time. It's almost like having a breath mint," said Paul Riders, a 14-year-old boy in New York City.
　Today's tiny books are just fancy greeting cards. "If there's too much text in the books, they don't sell." said Evelyn Beilenson of Running Press.
　In addition, some of the tiny books come with toys, such as little dolls or a wind bell.
　Publishers are competing to find new ways to sell the books to the public. This autumn, minibooks with stereoscopic covers and sound chips will be released. So a book on kissing makes the right kind of sound and a cookbook says "delicious" when a button is pressed.
　While mini-books have become a big business, there are few people who would believe that these books date back to 15th century. Then minibooks were used to test the skills of apprentice printers, who had to set the tiny type on very small pages.
　Their small size made them popular with travelers. The earliest books were Bibles, but by the 17th and 18th centuries, the list of topics ranged from hunting guides to poetry. Napoleon once carried a mobile library of the books into battle.
　In 1969, NASA sent a minibook to the moon on Apollo 11. More recently, a Ukrainian artist built a microscopic book of poetry held together with a spider's web. This minibook was small enough to pass through the eye of a needle.
　A fashion or a lasting treasure, who knows what the future has in store for the minibook?
　While the minibook is sold well in the US, it is also becoming popular in China.
ANNOTATION:
florist  n.种花人                                  centimeters  n. 厘米
stereoscopic: adj.实体镜的,有立体感的            Ukrainian: adj.乌克兰的, 乌克兰人(语)
microscopic: adj. 微型的

　　有人视其为垃圾，也有人视其为珍藏。无论人们怎样看待迷你型书籍，它十分畅销却是无可争辩的事实。
　　迷你书的销售遍及美国。咖啡馆，小商店，售花亭，修车场，迷你书的倩影随处可见。
　　据美国迷你书协会称，迷你书的高、宽和厚都不应超过7.35厘米。因此，它们也常被称为口袋书或袖珍书。
　　迷你书虽小，但内容却涉及几乎所有的时髦话题，名人传记、宠物、瘦身减肥等，可谓无所不包。
　　已在美国出版了4千万册迷你书的Running Press出版社称，《心灵鸡汤》迷你版多年来一直保持着畅销地位。
　　“迷你型《心灵鸡汤》可随身携带，随时翻阅，就像一粒清新的薄荷糖，”来自纽约的14岁男孩Paul Ridberg如此说。
　　现在的很多迷你书印得像明信片一样漂亮。“如果文字过多，迷你书一定不会畅销，”Running Press出版社的Evelyn Beilenson如是说。
　　而且，有些迷你书还随赠玩具，比如小洋娃娃或风铃什么的。为了推销书籍，出版商们可谓新招迭出。今年秋天，带立体封面的迷你书和有声迷你书都将进入市场。比如，讲接吻的迷你书会模拟出接吻声；而介绍烹饪的迷你书则会在按下一个按钮后称赞：“真好吃。”
　　现在迷你书已经风行市场，但却少有人知道它的历史竟可以追溯到15世纪。当时印刷厂的学徒工必须在很小的纸上印刷文字来证明自己的技术已经过关，这就是迷你书的由来。
　　这些小巧的迷你书颇受旅行者青睐。最早的迷你书印行的是《圣经》，但到17、18世纪，其内容则扩大到狩猎指南和诗集等诸多方面。拿破仑就曾将迷你书带上了战场。
　　1969年美国航空航天局发射升空的阿波罗11号就带有一本迷你书。后来，一位乌克兰艺术家将其制作的一本微型诗集放到蛛网上。这本书竟小到可穿过针眼，但也只能在显微镜下才能阅读。
　　迷你书，你只是一时的流行还是会历久不衰？又有谁知道你的未来呢？
　　迷你书不仅在美国畅销，在中国市场上也日渐流行。