A tunnel-like interior of the Last Bookstore.[Photo provided to China Daily]

In short, it is a lifestyle, Fang Suo Commune being just one of the answers to why people still need bookstores and what kinds of bookstores they need in an age when buying books online is more convenient and cheaper.

In early September bookstore owners from 10 countries and regions gathered in Fang Suo Commune to discuss how to run a bookstore. They were from Librairie Avant-Garde, of Nanjing; Tales on Moon Lane Children's Bookshop, London; Livraria Cultura, Sao Paolo, Brazil; La Feltrinelli, Milan; Actes Sud, Arles, France; Do You Read Me?!, Berlin; The Last Bookstore, Los Angeles; JXJ Books, Taipei; Avid Reader, Brisbane, Australia; and B & B, Tokyo.

For them, building beautiful and creative bookstores is a strategy aimed at helping them survive and a social responsibility that will bring changes in neighborhoods and cities, because books are not merely goods, they say, and generally there is little or no money to be made in selling them, especially given the influence of e-commerce.

A presentation and question and answer session given by the owner of B&B, Shintaro Uchinuma, an audience laughing, and that reaction extended to his explanation of his shop's name, which he said stands for Book and Beer. For 500 yen (30 yuan; $4,50) you get a cup of beer, and the right to read any book in the 100 sq m shop.