Tomes that roam in the ether

Many online bookstores buy only books published this century, Hu says, a policy he disagrees with. Since many old books owned by older people are as valuable as more recently published works, he says, online secondhand book dealers should be more open to books published earlier.

"I once met this 70 year old selling his books to street waste recycling stations. He bemoaned the fact that because his children did not want them and he could no longer read them, he had no choice. I wish online bookstores would buy older books so more people could make better use of them."

Though online secondhand book stores provide plenty of convenience and seem to have bright prospects, more conventional, physical bookshops, are still showing their resilience. During the National Day holiday in October, Duo Zhua Yu rented a shop in Beijing for a week, its first offline store, and says it sold 180,000 secondhand books in just six days.

Hu, who has managed bookshops for 10 years, says that while the internet is a great sales channel, there is nothing quite like stumbling on a good book in a physical shop.

"You have to touch the book to ensure it's the one you want, and it's important to start reading it as soon as you have paid for it."