【明報專訊】It may be my wishful bias, but indie bookshops seem to be striving these days. On any fine weekend, it is common to find readers from all walks of life huddled up in cosy reading corners, their faces pressed against the shop front glass, musing over the titles they have just encountered. Parents and young kids circle tables of children's magazines, stocking up on items to secretly read behind the mandatory Zoom lesson screens in the coming months. Steep in the global pandemic, work and studies have been displaced. Artificial communities like schools and workplaces are temporarily paralysed. More than ever, people are left with a space, or perhaps vacuum, to wander on their own, looking for new inspirations and companions who actually share their interests. If this was a movie, it is as if someone has set up the bookshops long before, waiting for the characters to settle in when time comes.
