Debra Li
INSPIRED by the success of free book club www.bookcrossing.com, the organizing committee of the Shenzhen Reading Month is moving the annual book-sharing event online this year.
As well as borrowing books from more than 40 outlets in the city’s six districts, readers can now log onto www.ibooker.cn to borrow and return books after registering an account.
Each person can borrow a maximum of three books within 10 days and pay 6 yuan (US$0.88) per book for the delivery service. Readers willing to share their own books can register the book information online. If a book is lost, the borrower must buy another copy to replace it or pay compensation. Readers who fail to return five books will have their accounts closed.
Readers can also write reviews and join online panel discussions at the site.
The first batch of 2,500 books have been offered with another 2,000 to be replenished later in November.
“We are working with delivery companies to streamline the process so that the cost of delivery can be cut after a while,” Zhang Bo, a member on the organizing committee, said yesterday.
It is still cheaper and time efficient than buying your own book or going to a library.
In the ninth year since Shenzhen inaugurated the reading month in 2000, the organizers set the theme “Enjoy Reading” to focus on individual readers.
“The purpose has been to foster a love of reading among residents,” said Yin Changlong, vice chief of the cultural bureau.
Another highlight of the reading month will be the eight lectures given by top Chinese scholars, such as Ge Jianxiong, historian and chief librarian at Fudan University, as well as popular authors such as Zhang Yueran. Readers can each obtain two free tickets at Luohu Book City a week before the lectures.
This year’s reading month events also include a speaking contest to mark the 30th anniversary of “Open and Reform,” a speed-reading contest, a Chinese classics recitation contest and poetry recitation.
An economic powerhouse, Shenzhen had once been ridiculed by residents from Beijing and other cities as a “cultural desert.” However, it was one of the first two places in China apart from Jiangsu Province to start a reading month.
The number of residents attending reading month events rose from 1.7 million in 2000 to more than 8 million last year. Over the past eight years, the organizers donated books more than 12 million yuan to Project Hope schools in mountainous areas.