According to a report put out on Tuesday on the World Reading Day, children between the ages of 7 and 9 were the most active young users at public libraries in Shanghai. 【小题1】

There were more than 284,000 active users, aged below 16 at such libraries in Shanghai. The government provides library service at 257 institutions (机构) for children and teenagers at different areas. 【小题2】 Because the government makes efforts to build a child-friendly society.

Several institutions published (发布) the 2023 Shanghai Public Library Children’s Reading Report, including Shanghai Children’s Library and Shanghai Library. The report said that young readers borrowed books for a total of over 15 million times from the public libraries in the city. 【小题3】 And next are art and language books. To our surprise, there are a number of foreigners from 47 countries used the service too.

Moreover, the report showed that more than 80 percent of the children readers in Shanghai spent half an hour or more on reading everyday. 【小题4】

To encourage children to read more, some libraries had some creative ways. Shanghai Children’s Library provide an online book borrowing service for students in January during their winter vacation. It is more convenient for children to make book borrowing and reading by choosing to have a book delivery (配送) service. 【小题5】

Reading is an important interest and skill wherever you are. Government and libraries in other areas should learn from Shanghai. How to provide more choices and chances for teenagers to read more and learn more may be worth thinking deeply.

What’s Your Favorite Bookstore?

Four students are talking about their favorite bookstores in the city.

11 Fuzhou Road	Foreign Language Bookstore Foreign Language Bookstore is my favorite bookstore. This three- story bookstore on Fuzhou Road has a lot of novels, textbooks, travel guides, magazines and so on. There are a large number of very cheap classics. Most of the books are in English, but I also have many good choices of Japanese, French and German books. Holly
36 Shanxi Nan Road	Book Traders Bookstore Book Traders Bookstore is my favorite place in town! It’s pretty tiny, but it’s well worth visiting! It’s a good place for book lovers to buy cheap English-language magazines. It also sells lots of secondhand books including modern novels and travel diaries. Sometimes I can get a good deal at 5 yuan! Jerry
Lane 32 Tianping Road	Mix Paper My favorite bookstore is Mix Paper. Mix Paper is a good choice! Full of popular types, the two-story store has a lot of books on art and literature. The first floor offers literature both in Chinese and in English, while the second floor homes art, design, and photography titles. Whatever I am looking for, I can find it here! Rick
25 Changle Road	Garden Books I always go to Garden Books to search for interesting books. It sells the best classics of Chinese literature in translation, and offers a wide variety of modern literature and international bestsellers. I like it best because I can find all kinds of children’s books there. Besides, the store holds talks every weekend, which is really fun! Carmen

The subway train is running fast. A boy is reading a book carefully in his seat in the subway while many other people are playing their phones.

To encourage reading, a Chinese company started the book-sharing activity. They put over 10,000 books around the underground, in taxis and on planes in Beijing. Since the activity started, it has earned the support of many people, even some popular stars. The book-sharing activity, however, drew much more criticism (批判) than praise. For some books were left untouched, some books were taken away by cleaners. People also complained that they couldn’t get to the books—the underground was too crowded.

Most people thought it could do little to encourage reading. “I think the best result is that people take selfies (自拍) when they pick up the books and write a post in WeChat. After that, they will just bring the books back home and put them on their bookshelves.” wrote one Weibo user.

Some pointed out that some stars who supported the activity didn’t seem to be reading much, they just wanted to draw other’s attention. Isn’t it embarrassing that the activity is supported by stars who don’t read a lot?

“The book-sharing activity is not at all a bad thing. In the past years, everybody has been busy with work. They don’t have time for reading,” said a famous Chinese writer, “however, just because Chinese people don’t often read, it doesn’t mean we should do nothing to encourage reading.”