At Tokyo's Honmaru Jimbocho bookstore, a shelf-sharing book rack captures the spirit of a growing literary marketing trend. Photo: AFP
"I'm holding an illustrated book of cheeses," says a delighted Tomoyo Ozumi, a customer at a growing kind of bookshop in Japan where anyone wanting to sell their tomes can rent a shelf.
The concept brings back the joy of browsing real books to communities where many bookstores have shut, and gives readers more eclectic choices than those suggested by algorithms on online sellers, its proponents say.
