Sharing economy offers new chapter for bookstores

On a sizzling hot summer morning, a story in China Daily caught my eye. It said that Hefei, capital of Anhui province, now has the world's first shared bookstore, which allows readers to borrow new books if they pay a 99 yuan ($14.99) deposit.

I admit before I read the news, I was a bit fed up with the concept of shared things. In the past few years, China has been swept by a shared economy wave, and you may have tried or heard about shared bikes, power banks, KTV, fitness rooms, and even chairs. But I have no problem with the idea of shared books, because I'm a book lover.

For me, the news was encouraging, because you can save money and overcome the problem of storing the books. Unlike a library, where you can only see the photo of the book's cover and a brief introduction, shared bookshops make it possible for you to decide which books to borrow after fully browsing through them. What's more, the move could lower the threshold for people to read books and lessen the burden on traditional bookstores from rising operating costs and competition from e-commerce rivals.