Access to books created a new culture of reading.\xa0Now books could reach out to wider sections of people. If earlier there was a hearing public, now a reading public came into being. But, books could be read only by the literate, and the rates of literacy in most European countries were very low till the twentieth century.\xa0So printers began publishing popular ballads and folk tales, and such books would be profusely illustrated with pictures. These were then sung and recited at gatherings in villages and in taverns in towns.Oral culture thus entered print and printed material was orally transmitted. This led to the intermingling of hearing and reading public.