Book swap project goes bust
- Source: Global Times
- [09:15 March 30 2011]
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By Wei Na
A Tiantongyuan bookstore has closed up shop and called it quits on a project to encourage people to share and trade books after not a single tome was returned.
Shuxiangrenjia's book trading project was proposed by a teacher living in Tiantongyuan, Changping district, and launched in February 2010.
With no fees, deposits or library cards required, people could just pick out a book from a trading "harbor" in the bookstore and later return it to that section or pass it on to someone else. A card was pasted on the back of each book to record where and when the holder received it and where they would leave the book for trade when finished.
A social worker in the community surnamed Wang who participated in the project's launch ceremony told the Beijing Youth Daily Tuesday that the record cards had 20 registration columns, and that the 20th borrower was supposed to return the book to the harbor.
"It was assumed that there would be at least some books that made it back to the harbor, but unfortunately not one did, as far as I know," Wang said.
Three batches of less than 50 books each were distributed every two months, their topics chosen from the most popular ones that local citizens posted to the Tiantongyuan community portal website.
The initiators planned to build a mobile library beyond the community if their first three activities continued to receive a good response from residents, but their dreams, like their books, have since vanished.
Gu Hanrui, an IT worker, lives in Tiantongyuan and recounted coming across one of Shuxiangrenjia's books, a novel written by a Taiwanese author.
"I saw it on my roommate's desk, and read it for a few pages, but I can't remember where it went after passing through our apartment," Gu said. "I think highly of the [bookstore's] rules and intentions, but it's hard for many to keep a promise to return a book or find a new reader for it when everyone claims to be 'too busy.'"
Xu Dawei runs a "civilian mobile library" in Dongcheng district, supported by profits he makes from his advertising company. He believes that book trading can only survive when managed by purely public, not-for-profit bookstores.
"I never expect the books to return, because the purpose is to let them become 'mobile' in the hopes of encouraging more real readers. It has to be done as a donation, rather than as a promotional method for a business," Xu said.
"That so many out there break the rules shows exactly why people need to be encouraged to read more: to achieve higher moral standards," he added.
