Bookstores for The People! Yes, comrades! China, 1952 and the proletariat need books - of course! Bloody proles today, you let 'em have books and what do they read? Harry Potter! That won't further the revolutionary cause, will it?
These prints were made using source material from the book pictured below, published in Peking in 1952, a bound collection of the People's China' magazine.
People make a lot of fuss over the fragile existence of independent bookstores these days. Rightly so if you care about independence. Trouble is, I have to care more about my finances. Like organic food, books from these indie shops are virtually the sole preserve of the middle-classes - good luck to them! Meanwhile, the full-price cost of a book aside, you won't find this in a normal bookshop...
...I got it from Oxfam, Crouch End.
Fact is, the real 'Bookstore for the People' today is the internet. And charity shops where, I notice, you can always buy a Jamie Oliver cook book for peanuts! Nobody buys cookery books anymore...all the recipes are online, aren't they?!
Nobody(?) buys art, much. Why should they? Sometimes, it's on the internet...
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