问答题

Since a particular bookstore happens to resemble a supermarket anyway, the inescapable, though perhaps unintended, message is that books are consumable items, meant to be devoured and forgotten, like potatoes or pizza. The implied inclusion of books among the world’s perishable goods is hardly made more agreeable by the reflection that increasing numbers of books these days do seem to be written with just such consumption in mind, and that most bookstores have become little more than news stands for hard cover publications of this sort, which are merchandised for a few weeks—sometimes only as long as they remain on the best-seller lists—and are then retired to discount store (those jumbled graveyards of books, so saddening to  the hearts of authors)shortly before dropping out of print altogether. Books that are planned for rapid oblivion probably make some kind of economic sense to publishing houses, but as contribution to literature they amount to a contradiction in terms.

解析：
【翻译要点】
本题需注意长句的翻译，翻译长句主要是把原文句子的主次脉络搞清。首先抓住句子的主语和谓语，然后根据句中的关联词如关系代词、关系副词、介词等来看各种修饰语，弄清它们之间的关系，继而理解全文。