More people visited the recently-ended Shanghai Book Fair than in previous editions.Gao Erqiang/Shanghai Star

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Enthusiastic readers lined up at the gates of the exhibition halls, at book readings and signings. Even the canteens serving food had crowds of people.

Yu Yuying, an 82-year-old retiree, visited the fair despite her cataracts making reading difficult. She says "it would be a pity" if she had not come, as she spends most of her time reading, and has bought enough books to fill two shelves.

She says The Gadfly by Irish writer Ethel Lillian Voynich and How the Steel Was Tempered by Russian writer Nikolai Ostrovsky were popular books in her younger years. She says her interest in philosophy and literature has helped her to live a better life and be a better person.

Wu Xuan, 41, browsed the children's book section, checking out the picture books. She is a writer from the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region who says children should read printed books, rather than digital devices, as they are too easily distracted staring at the bright screen.