Santanu did not have much in this world. He owned a few items of clothing， a pair of cheap-looking trainers， a few pens， and a book. An obsolete book.

People didnt own books anymore. The year was 2042 and for the children at Santanus school， a book seemed as ancient as a suit of armour or a castle. Everyone had the latest phones and electronic tablets. They owned ibooks， laptops and computers. Santanu did not have any of these things because his family was poor. People didnt call him because he didnt have a phone. Nobody emailed him because he didnt have a computer. His friends thought that he was weird and often teased him for being so out of touch.

But his book was his solace. It was a very old book. When he opened it， a funny smell wafted up from the pages. It smelled old and damp.

What the book was about was a mystery to Santanu. He mainly used it as a notebook， writing story ideas in the margins， or his friends phone numbers and email addresses. Just in case he ever needed them one day.

His best friend Crystal was also very poor. But even she had a mobile phone. She liked Santanus book and often wrote stories in it with him. She had nowhere else to keep all of her passwords so she wrote them in Santanus book.

One sunny day， the children in the playground were louder than usual， talking all at once with slightly panicked looks on their faces. They had their phones in their hands and all of them were trying to text or call， but it seemed like it wasnt working.

The headmaster， Mr. Williams， looked nervous as he told the children what had happened.

“Now I know you have all been very worried，” he said，“but we must remain calm. There seems to have been an electrical problem. The Internet has crashed and it is going to be tricky for all of us， but we must stay calm and work out what we are going to do.”

In 2042 almost everything was operated by the Internet. Nothing was tangible. You could not touch information like in Santanus book. Everything relied on the Internet： light switches， televisions， mobile phones and computers. And now nothing worked！

The children grew noisy and unsettled. They were scared. Nothing like this had ever happened before. How would they communicate？ What would they do with their free time？ What did anybody do before television and computer games and email？

The bell rang and the children were herded into their classrooms， still restless and afraid. The whiteboards didnt work. The computers didnt work. The teachers tried to make the children practice their handwriting skills instead but they were all terrible at writing. Nobody used pens anymore！

The days drifted from one to another. Nobody knew when the computers would come back on. The children didnt know what to do with themselves. They wandered out into the streets but they did not know where their friends lived because they only ever talked to them over the phone or online.

Eventually word got around the school that Santanu had an encyclopedia of information in his little book： names and addresses and phone numbers. One day， an older boy called Kai followed Santanu home and demanded to know his friends address which Santanu had meticulously noted on the inside cover of his book. Santanu agreed to give the boy the address， that is， if he could go with him and play. That is how it started. That is how Santanu met lots of friends and made up new games for them all. He enjoyed playing face to face. He enjoyed the real world instead of computers.

One day， the children were all playing in a deserted part of town when it started raining. They all ran for shelter beside the door to a big orange brick building. One by one they piled against the door to protect themselves from the rain， until there was a terrible creaking sound and the door caved inwards so that the children all fell inside， one on top of the other in a huge bundle.

Santanu was the first to get to his feet. He rubbed his eyes and looked around. “Books！ Look at all these books！”he cried. “What is this place？”

“I dont know，” replied his friend Crystal. “Its like an old house.”

There was a large desk in the centre of the room and above the desk there was a sign. It said “Returns and Issuing Desk” . Above that there was an even bigger sign hanging from the ceiling. It said “Public Library”.

None of the children knew what the word “l(fā)ibrary”meant but it didnt matter. Santanu could not believe his eyes. He wandered down the aisles touching the spines of all the books. It was like a forbidden palace， a secret place only the children knew about.

As the weeks passed， more and more children arrived at the library after school. They would read to each other or read quietly to themselves curled up under blankets. They would play chase and hide and seek and make up stories of their own.

Santanu liked to roam the aisles reading just a few sentences from each book. He read bits of A History of the World in 100 Objects， A Brief History of Time， 20000 Leagues Under the Sea， and even Thomas The Tank Engine. Anything he could get his hands on.

One Saturday， when Santanu arrived at the library late in the morning， he noticed how silent it was. There were no children anywhere. Santanu wondered if they had all been caught by a grown-up and thrown out. Then Crystal emerged meekly from behind the “travel”section.

“Theyve fixed the problem，” she said. “The computers and Internet are all working again. Everybody has gone home.”

She asked Santanu for her passwords and then， rather sheepishly， she walked out of the door leaving Santanu alone with all the books.

The young boy stared at the rows of shelves all lined with books. He thought about all of the stories inside the books and felt sad that nobody would ever take the time to read them. But then he smiled to himself， took a book from the nearest shelf and curled up under a blanket in his favorite corner of the library. The book was called The Hobbit and Santanu was sure it would be a great read.

桑坦努在這個(gè)世界上擁有的東西不多。他有幾件衣服、一雙廉價(jià)的運(yùn)動(dòng)鞋、幾支筆以及一本書(shū)。一本過(guò)時(shí)的舊書(shū)。

人們已經(jīng)不再擁有書(shū)了。那是在2042年，對(duì)在桑坦努的學(xué)校讀書(shū)的孩子來(lái)說(shuō)，書(shū)似乎是像盔甲和城堡一樣古老的東西。大家都擁有最新的手機(jī)和平板電腦。他們有電子書(shū)、筆記本和電腦。這些東西桑坦努一樣也沒(méi)有，因?yàn)樗依锖芨F。大家不會(huì)給他打電話因?yàn)樗麤](méi)有手機(jī)，沒(méi)有人給他發(fā)郵件，因?yàn)樗麤](méi)有電腦。他的朋友都覺(jué)得他這個(gè)人很怪，經(jīng)常嘲笑他的落伍。

但是他的書(shū)能給他帶來(lái)慰藉。那是一本很舊的書(shū)。他一打開(kāi)這本書(shū)，一股奇怪的味道便從紙上飄蕩開(kāi)來(lái)。那是一股陳舊而潮濕的味道。

桑坦努看不懂書(shū)上的內(nèi)容。他主要把它當(dāng)作記事本使用，在頁(yè)面的空白處記下一些故事靈感，或是他朋友的電話號(hào)碼和郵箱地址，以備不時(shí)之需。

他最好的朋友克麗絲圖也很窮。但就連她也有一部手機(jī)。她喜歡桑坦努的書(shū)，經(jīng)常和他一起在上面寫故事。她沒(méi)別的地方可以寫下密碼，所以她把全部密碼都記在了桑坦努的書(shū)上。

有一天，陽(yáng)光燦爛，操場(chǎng)上的孩子們比平常喧鬧了些，他們?nèi)w略顯驚慌地說(shuō)著話。他們手里拿著手機(jī)，正在試圖發(fā)短信或者打電話，但似乎都不行。

校長(zhǎng)威廉斯先生神情緊張地告訴這些孩子發(fā)生了什么事。

“我知道你們現(xiàn)在都很擔(dān)心，”他說(shuō)，“但我們必須保持鎮(zhèn)定。好像是電力方面出了些問(wèn)題。網(wǎng)絡(luò)已經(jīng)癱瘓了，接下來(lái)的狀況對(duì)我們所有人來(lái)說(shuō)都是一個(gè)挑戰(zhàn)，但我們必須保持鎮(zhèn)定，找出應(yīng)對(duì)的方法。

在2042年，幾乎所有的東西都是由網(wǎng)絡(luò)操控的。所有東西都是無(wú)形的。與桑坦努的書(shū)不同，所有的信息都是無(wú)法碰觸的。一切都依靠網(wǎng)絡(luò)：照明、電視、手機(jī)以及電腦。而現(xiàn)在，所有的一切都無(wú)法運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)！

孩子們變得愈加吵鬧不安。他們感到害怕。以前從未發(fā)生過(guò)這種事。他們要怎么交流？他們要在空閑時(shí)間做些什么？在沒(méi)有電視、電腦和電子郵件之前，人們都做些什么？

上課鈴響了，孩子們回到教室，他們依然覺(jué)得恐懼不安。黑板用不了。電腦用不了。于是，老師便讓學(xué)生練習(xí)寫字，但他們的字都寫得很差?，F(xiàn)在已經(jīng)沒(méi)有人再使用筆了。

日子一天天地過(guò)去。沒(méi)人知道什么時(shí)候才用得了電腦。孩子們都不知道該做些什么。他們走到了大街上，但都不知道朋友們住在哪里，因?yàn)樗麄兌贾辉陔娫捄途W(wǎng)上聊天。

最后，學(xué)校流傳起：桑坦努有一本小小的書(shū)，書(shū)里有著百科全書(shū)般的信息——姓名、地址和電話號(hào)碼。有一天，一個(gè)叫凱的大男孩跟著桑坦努回家，并問(wèn)桑坦努要他朋友的地址，桑坦努把他朋友的地址小心翼翼地記在他書(shū)上的內(nèi)封面里了。桑坦努同意把地址給那個(gè)男孩，只要男孩答應(yīng)和桑坦努做朋友，和他一起玩。這便是一切的開(kāi)端。桑坦努就這樣交了很多朋友，為他們想出了許多新游戲。他喜歡和人面對(duì)面地玩耍。他喜歡真實(shí)的世界而不是虛擬世界。

一天，孩子們正在鎮(zhèn)上一個(gè)荒廢的地方玩耍，天空突然開(kāi)始下起雨來(lái)。他們跑到一座橘色的磚建大樓的門前避雨。為了不讓雨淋到，他們抵著大門一個(gè)挨著一個(gè)擠作一團(tuán)，直到大門發(fā)出一聲巨響，向內(nèi)坍塌，孩子們便都往里面栽了下去，一個(gè)壓著一個(gè)，摔成一堆。

桑坦努第一個(gè)站了起來(lái)。他揉揉眼睛，看向周圍。“書(shū)！快看，這些都是書(shū)！”他大喊道。“這是什么地方？”

“不知道，”他的朋友克麗絲圖回答道。“這看起來(lái)像是座老房子。”

房間中間有一張大桌子，桌子上有一個(gè)指示牌，上面寫著：“圖書(shū)借還處”。天花板上掛著一個(gè)更大的牌子，寫著：“公共圖書(shū)館”。

這些孩子都不知道“圖書(shū)館”是什么意思，但這無(wú)關(guān)緊要。桑坦努無(wú)法相信他的眼睛。他沿著過(guò)道走過(guò)去，撫摸著這些書(shū)的書(shū)脊。這里就像一個(gè)禁地，一個(gè)只有小孩子才知道的秘密基地。

時(shí)間一周周地過(guò)去，越來(lái)越多的孩子在放學(xué)后來(lái)到這個(gè)圖書(shū)館。他們會(huì)互相讀書(shū)給對(duì)方聽(tīng)或者自己一個(gè)人裹著毯子安靜地閱讀。他們會(huì)玩抓鬼游戲、捉迷藏、以及自己想故事。

桑坦努喜歡穿梭在過(guò)道間，把每本書(shū)都讀上幾句話。他讀了一點(diǎn)兒《大英博物館世界簡(jiǎn)史》、《時(shí)間簡(jiǎn)史》、《海底兩萬(wàn)里》，甚至是《小火車頭托馬斯》，凡是他的手夠得到的書(shū)他都拿來(lái)看看。

一個(gè)星期六上午，當(dāng)桑坦努去到圖書(shū)館時(shí)，他發(fā)現(xiàn)這里一片寂靜。桑坦努想他們是不是都被大人抓到給趕了出去。然后，克麗絲圖從“旅游”閱覽區(qū)后面靜靜地走了出來(lái)。

“他們把問(wèn)題解決了，”她說(shuō)道，“電腦和網(wǎng)絡(luò)都重新運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)了。大家都回家了。”

她向桑坦努詢問(wèn)她的密碼，然后怯怯地走出門外，把桑坦努和所有的書(shū)留在身后。

小男孩盯著書(shū)架上一排排的書(shū)。想到?jīng)]有人會(huì)再花時(shí)間看這些書(shū)里的故事，他為之感到傷心。但他很快便對(duì)自己笑了笑，從最近的書(shū)架取出一本書(shū)，裹著毯子在他最喜歡的角落里看了起來(lái)。這本書(shū)叫《霍比特人》，桑坦努肯定這本書(shū)會(huì)很精彩。