Bookshops: Talk of demise is exaggerated

In Taiwan, Eslite hosts more than 5,000 activities a year, including exhibitions and dance performances. In Suzhou, Eslite offers more than 300 activities a year. Sometimes there are book exhibitions, such as Cai Guoqiang's Day and Night, and Han Han's One. Dance classes are also held there, and sometimes there are cooking demonstrations.

Anyone who hopes to deal solely in books is likely to be forced out of business by e-commerce, or other modes of doing business, says Lang.

"But if bookstore space is closely connected with consumers' lifestyles or their hobbies, it will be rather difficult to replace."

I missed out on a treat that took place in Suzhou the day before I arrived there, a talk by the Taiwan writer Pai Hsien-yung, but it was a delight to see the works of all my favorite woman writers on display for the International Women's Day－Virginia Woolf, Susan Sontag, Eileen Chang, Hannah Arendt, Emily Dickinson and Yang Jiang.

At Librairie Avant-Garde trying to get an idea of the range of books available I came across a great many acquaintances, at least a couple of which I had recently finished reading, Charlotte by David Foenkinos and Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Entering Zhongshuge I found myself surrounded by a sea of books, underfoot beneath the glass floor, overhead above the glass ceiling, below the steps of the stairs, and on the walls; in short: everywhere.

The bookstore managers interviewed for this story emphasized that they are first and foremost there to sell books, although Eslite in Suzhou Industrial Park, as the developer of the land on which it stands, rents 41,000 square meters of the total 56,000 sq m to clothiers, caterers, and dealers in culturally creative products that Eslite has brought in, and it tactfully arranges related products among books with themes to match.

For example, near books on travel you can buy suitcases, aircraft models, world globes and book flights.

Culturally creative products are also an important money spinner for Avant-Garde, and Zhongshuge relies heavily on food and drink sales to bolster its income.

Managements of the bookstores seem to be proud about the books they sell. They do not sell textbooks and other learning aids and avoid self-help books. Avant-Garde and Zhongshuge focus on literature, arts, history and philosophy. Eslite has opened special sections on travel and lifestyle.