The Culture of Reading

I love reading since my childhood years. Yet, I didn't really like borrowing books from library. Instead, I like going to bookstore and staying there for quite a while, or I would just buy my favorite books back home to read & have that as my "collection".

It seems that less and less people would like to go bookstore and stay there to read or to check out the books. One of the reasons could be the high rent in Hong Kong, making it so difficult to get that large space for bookstore like the "Book City" in Shenzhen or "eslite" in Taiwan. Such spacious bookstores (or I should put "MEGA BOOKSTORE"!?) are in fact really good place for spending a whole day! In Hong Kong, it is also common for the store assistant to stop people from sitting on the ground to read in a bookstore. Perhaps the owner is afraid that people doing this will not buy anything, or simply because of the 'visual nuisance' which the owner does not like. In fact, this discourage people to stay longer in the bookstore. Last, another reason could be the popluarity of e-books nowadays.

What a pity indeed.

I have been to China, Taiwan, Singapore, the United States, Europe... Compared to Hong Kong, I would say the 'culture of reading' in those places are much richer and more popular among the general public. Bookstore is still a popular place, and the books found there involve really vast and deep subjects. There is no boundary in the 'wisdom' behind at all. Bookstore is such a good place for family as well!

I wish there will be some sort of 'culture of reading' in Hong Kong.