A Morning Amongst the Shelves
I was born in Hong Kong. Visiting bookstores is one of my favourite pastimes. There are two bookstores in Central, and I went to the Joint Publishing one. It has three floors: The ground floor sells Chinese books, the second floor sells stationery, and the top floor sells mainly English books.
As I made my way to the top floor, I scanned the entire ground floor and noticed there were more than 10 people browsing the books. When I reached the top floor, everything looked different except for the number of customers, which remained the same(less than 5).
Most sections in the bookstore were dedicated to Chinese books. The only sections I could find for English books were science and history. There were a few other sections as well but not many. Interestingly, the number of sections has decreased from 10 to 5 since the last time I visited.
I found it surprising that there were so few English books available in the bookstore. I wondered if that was because not many people read English books here in Hong Kong or if they prefer reading online books instead.
Personally, I rarely read Chinese books myself because I understand English better(At least I can communicate in English). Also, I appreciate the beauty of the English language. Although I’m not entirely an expert in the language, I’m still learning it.
Despite the limitation of the selection of English books, I still enjoy chilling in bookstores. Reading is an important part of my life. I believe that bookstores play a crucial role in promoting reading culture. They provide a physical space to browse, discover, and connect with books and ideas. Even if I cannot find what I want, I still enjoy exploring and discovering new books.
