When was the last time you bought a book? Was it a printed copy or an e-book? Did you visit your favorite corner bookstore or purchase it on line?
As e-books and on-line purchases become a more significant part of the publishing industry, brick and mortar bookstores are becoming an endangered species.
China's well established brand Sanlian, or the SDX Joint Publishing House, has no other choice but to close its last bookshop in downtown Guangzhou.
16 years after serving book lovers in downtown Guangzhou, this bookshop has to say goodbye. For many people, this is a very difficult time. The head of the bookshop, Mrs. Peng, couldn't control her sobs.
Peng Yiming, head of SDX Joint Bookshop in GZ Book Center, said, "It's so hard to say goodbye. Books carry our culture. I don't know how to express my feelings now. The only thing I can do is to put those books in order for readers."
While for the readers, the only thing they can do is to pay one last visit and feel great pity.
This college student has been visiting this bookshop every week since high school over the past six years. Now he can't believe his home away from home is gone.
A college student said, "What a big pity! This bookshop is popular among the intellectuals. Here, you won't find many 'how to' books for success in business that are usually piled on the shelves of other bookstores. And here you also get treated to various imported magazines that are rarely found in Guangzhou."
Another specialty of the bookshop offered was a collection of imported prints from Hong Kong. Mr. Weng visited regularly just to see them. Weng says he will have to go directly to Hong Kong instead after this bookstore is closed.
Mr. Weng is among many people asking why this must happen. But as the head of the bookshop explains, the deadliest attack comes from the sky-rocketing rent.
Though the life of this brick and mortar bookstore has run its course, the time is now ripe for those who managed it so well to find their new niche in this digital era.
