Sir: Books, once upon a time, were said to be man’s best friend. Since the advent of the internet and its sprawling effect, reading has become an unpopular activity. The information available on the net is not always complete. Since it is easier to access data from the internet with an added advantage of cut/copy/post, net browsing for information gathering has unfortunately become increasingly popular among the students. As has been rightly pointed out by the intellectuals on many forums, book reading is fast becoming an archaic activity in Pakistan. It is not a good sign for a country that already seems on the brink of an intellectual collapse. Although television, internet and now cellular services have driven people further from reading, escalating book prices have also contributed to this declining trend. As reported lately, sales of books have declined by 60 percent in Pakistan over the last two decades. We have a collective responsibility to revive book reading so that the intellectual decadence this nation is going through could be halted in time. TANVEER FATIMA Karachi