You have to understand books to sell books
For the Qiu family, the bookstore has also paid great personal dividends in terms of connecting them with the local community and making new friends.
When you enter Weeping Lovegrass, you will see that the entire wall to your left is covered with the family’s book collection, accumulated over many years. The entire wall to the right, meanwhile, is dedicated to books that have been gradually brought in since the opening of the bookstore. In either case, each and every book has been read by at least one member of the family. “We are able to tell customers about the plot or content of every single book, and recommend a book to them or even pick one out for them.”
Qiu says that Dada knows by heart where every single book is. Sometimes, when the adults can’t remember where a book is, they have to depend on Dada to fetch it out. Also, he is able to recommend or choose books for his peers. “I opened the bookstore mainly to benefit Dada and keep him reading, so I am really gratified to see how much he is getting out of it, and the fact is that he has read a lot of new books.”
Mrs. Qiu, who has supported her husband in both word and deed, says that a lot of people have been very supportive and encouraging. She will never forget one parent who, just a few days after the shop opened, heard about their determination to encourage young people to read and the next day donated a big set of books. “I dare say that we personally get to know every single person who comes into Weeping Lovegrass, and they have all become our friends.”
Mrs. Qiu has made a lot of friends through reading, and has gotten a lot of happiness from them. The Qius often think about what else they can contribute to the community, and they have discovered that they want to do more and more things with the bookstore. Even now Mrs. Qiu is beginning to plan how to stay involved in reading promotion after she retires from her fulltime job.
You have to understand people
Qiu aims for more than being in the business of books: he wants to buttress the relationship between people and books. Therefore he has studied all possible methods to keep the bookstore in operation as long as possible, and has been continually trying them out. His first experiment was a reading club for children. He brought in Lin Yuzhu, a teacher at the nearby Huludun Cultural Center, to choose two books per semester, to set a schedule for reading, and to guide the students as they read by discussing the books as a group.
Because young people are picky about reading, and can’t always get into more profound or difficult books, Qiu first lets the kids blend into the group, and then they are led by the teacher. In this way they can get all the way through good books. In the year-plus that the reading club has been in existence, the 12 spots have always been filled, and some people have even reserved spots in advance.
The two-hour club meetings also include written assignments to improve composition skills, which Qiu admits are designed to help students advance in school. But the subject matter is always drawn from their reading, and after all the point of the club is just that the students will set aside more time for books than they otherwise would.
Parents need to read with their kids
Since opening the bookstore, the most common question that Qiu hears from parents is, “What can I do to get my child interested in reading?” Based on his own experience, he states: “A lot of parents neglect to invest time in reading alongside their children.”
If parents want their children to spend more time in the world of books, the best approach is for the parents to be there reading right along with the children. As a second best, if the parent has not had the chance to read whatever the child is reading, at least they should find some time to talk about the book with the child. If there are questions about what books to choose, he suggests that parents first find out what the children’s preferences are. He says: “If you just go with the flow, children will naturally find something interesting in the world of books.” When parents find out the general interests of their children, the bookstore can make specific recommendations, which is something that Weeping Lovegrass offers that big bookstore chains just cannot match.
Lectures and board games to attract readers
Books are by no means the only items on the Weeping Lovegrass menu.
For example, last year the bookstore organized ten family-oriented lectures, and they plan to hold another ten this year. Qiu says that the lectures are a real challenge. Unpopular topics like plasticizers (which have been in the news as a food safety concern in Taiwan) draw few people, whereas for a talk on 12-year compulsory education, the place will be bursting at the seams. He says that he himself has never gotten discouraged. “I hope the bookstore will develop in diverse directions. Since I have this platform, in the future I will continue to move it in the directions that interest me.”
Another tactic that Qiu has tried is to use tabletop games, for which there has been a recent fad in Taiwan, to get children into the bookstore and become accustomed to spending time there. At first they can simply enjoy the pleasure of interacting with others and having some fun. If from there they can turn to the bookshelves and take out a book to read, then that’s all to the good.
Last year, Qiu also held his first competition for youth literature prizes—something he characterizes as his “ultimate dream.” The competition, for which he has received a subsidy from the Ministry of Culture, has three categories: essays, fiction, and modern vernacular poetry. Qiu’s expectation is that this will encourage more children to have the courage to express themselves through the written word. “It all comes back to the power of reading,” he says. “With books as their teachers, children can develop new creativity in writing.”
A project to last a lifetime
Independent bookstores have been appearing throughout Taiwan, in cities but also in less populated areas. Those in less populated locations face different challenges, but the Qius say that they have been very lucky.
Thanks to the money that he earned over his working life, Qiu owns the building where the bookstore is located, so he is under no pressure to meet rent payments. He also has no personnel, management, or marketing costs. Most of the books come from his own personal collection. As the bookstore doesn’t place a burden on their daily expenditures, there isn’t much downside to keeping it open.
Qiu hopes that his bookstore will be more than just a platform where people encounter books—he hopes it will be a platform between people, with books simply serving as the intermediary. His numbers show that in 2014 more than 850 people took part in various activities held by the bookstore. This has made him even more determined to keep going into the future.
Finally, he hopes that by promoting reading, more and more children will develop flexibility of heart and mind. He says, “When people’s hearts and minds are open, that’s when a city begins to know happiness. Although our strength is minuscule, we still have to keep plowing ahead. Our bookstore may be small, but it’s something worth working at for the rest of our lives!”