Jiang Weijun, a university student, used to ask her friends to chip in with her to buy glossy magazines that were too expensive for her budget.

But now she can save her breath. Jiang began to read the magazines at a very low price by renting them from book-stores.

"These fashion magazines usually cost 20 yuan for one copy. Now I can rent the maga-zine and keep it for two days for only four yuan," said Jiang.

Jiang is not alone. More and more locals, especially young people, have changed to this new concept of reading with many book rental outlets flourishing in the city.

The Star-Bookstore - a book rental chain from Taiwan Province - has opened nearly 40 outlets on the mainland since 2001, half of which were located in Shanghai.

Jerry Tsai, general manager of Star-Bookstore, predicts a bright future for the business model in the city.

"Taiwan has a population of 20 million and it has more than 5,000 book rental outlets. However, there are less than 30 such stores in Shanghai," said Tsai.

The age of the target customers of Star-Bookstore is between 16 and 25, who are information-thirsty but with low purchasing power. Women account for 70 percent of the store's customers, he added.

In Taiwan, the content of the rental bookstore is usually composed of 70 percent comic books, 18 percent romance novels, 10 percent martial arts stories, sci-fi and detective novels, while the rest is made up of magazines and periodicals.

But things are different in Shanghai, said Tsai. Due to a short supply of local comic books, the percentage of this genre has been adjusted to 25 percent.

Home deco and fashion magazines enjoy the highest rental rate at the local outlets which has 6,000 books and magazines each, according to the Star-Bookstore.

Besides chain stores, many local residents prefer small private rental business in their communities.

"I don't think the big firm is posing a threat to my business. Compared with the big Taiwan franchise book firm, our business is more flexible and has a closer link with the neighbors," said Wang Yin, who opened a community book renting business in Brilliant City, a residential complex in Putuo District.

So far, Wang's Chuju Book-shop has enrolled more than 300 members, most of whom are community residents.

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