UBR "Unconditional Basic Reader" Project: Purchase all Hong Kong books published in 2024

2024 is here, I wish everyone a safe and healthy new year. The first weekly report of the new year is, of course, about the annual plan. However, with my procrastinating personality, after listing the big plans complacently, most of them end up with a delay at the end of the year. I think it is better to choose a date than to hit it, rather to do it right away. Take action.

It is announced here that the Universal Basic Reader "Unconditional Basic Reader" project is launched today, abbreviated as UBR, which can be pronounced as "Uber".

UBR: Universal Basic Reader

Simply put, the goal of the UBR project is to purchase one copy of "all" "Hong Kong books" published in 2024. The project will purchase all Hong Kong paper books published in that month through an independent bookstore every month. All cooperative bookstores and book lists will be made public. People who are interested in supporting the project can go to the corresponding bookstore to purchase the books on the list and buy them. Keep them and give them to the UBR project. At the end of the next month, if no one buys the books, I will personally buy them and give them to the UBR project. In other words, the plan is to try to gather the power of the masses to purchase a complete set of Hong Kong books in 2024. Regardless of public participation, I will ultimately guarantee the bottom line.

Although the UBR plan was explained in a few sentences, it probably raised a lot of question marks for black people. Below I will try to guess the questions in everyone's mind and ask and answer them. But before that, I will explain what I will definitely ask you about, what is "Hong Kong books" and what is "all". The two questions are actually the same question. If we can clarify the boundaries of "Hong Kong books", "all" will be clear.

First of all, the "book" here refers to a paper book, and the so-called "Hong Kong" refers to an ISBN in Hong Kong or written by a Hong Kong author, or although it is neither, the subject matter is about Hong Kong, for example, Hong Kong Books published by authors in Taiwan are also covered by the project. However, if the definition of Hong Kong books is too broad, I am sure that bankruptcy will not be considered special. Considering the project itself alone, it does not make much sense, so it must be narrowed to a more reasonable scope. Before I can make it clear, let me use some examples to exclude the types of books that do not belong to "Hong Kong books" in my mind: fortune-telling and the like do not count; most travel, food and leisure books do not count, but there are occasional exceptions, such as last year's "Eat Well" ; Most magazines are not counted, with exceptions such as "Echo" , "Journ" and "Breakazine" ; textbooks are generally not counted, but there are exceptions; it is difficult to say about the books of Sanzhongshang.

I know that the above statement is very subjective and far from clear, and it is also difficult to decide whether it is appropriate to rob the poor and give to the rich, including the three middle businessmen's books. In fact, it is impossible to objectively define "Hong Kong books" by type and nature, so I changed my approach and started from the practical level. I simply defined "Hong Kong books" as "books with Hong Kong elements that are purchased and sold by independent bookstores." ” Moreover, because the UBR project originally purchases books through several independent bookstores, it only needs to rely on decentralized and professional judgment to select books from cooperative bookstores. However, I expressed to my cooperating bookstores that we might as well set the coverage of the book list to be more relaxed, "it is better to waste money than indulge in it."

Based on the above logic, and using the data of 2023 as a reference, there are about 350 Hong Kong books in the whole year, with a total price of about HK$55,000. Based on this estimate, coupled with the pessimistic but pragmatic assumption that no public will "encourage book donations", I decided to purchase all Hong Kong books in 2024 on my own. Although it was difficult, I could barely bear it, so I indulged my impulse and acted immediately.

UBR Program Frequently Asked Questions

Will the books purchased under the program be scanned into electronic files?

Won't.

The UBR project and going to the Central Library to scan books and newspapers that had disappeared from the shelves in the past are two independent actions. Except that they were both initiated by me, they are not related.

Why is it called the "Unconditional Basic Reader" project?

Quite obviously, it borrows the concept of Universal Basic Income (UBI).

UBI provides every citizen with an unconditional basic income. In the same way, UBR hopes to provide every "publishing citizen" with the most basic support in the current severe social environment and business ecosystem. This meager income is by no means sufficient to support life. , but at the same time it is spiritual and content conservation support.

What is the purpose of the UBR program?

1. Support Hong Kong’s publishing industry, including independent bookstores, publishers and authors.

2. Preserve Hong Kong books and preserve Hong Kong culture.

KPI is popular these days, what are the specific goals of the UBR plan?

"Take results as the goal." Whatever results are achieved will be considered as goals, so the plan will definitely meet the goals.

1. Purchase a complete set of Hong Kong books published in 2024 and store them properly. It is estimated that there will be 300-400 books and the cost will be HK$50,000-80,000. A complete bibliography of the project, costs involved and other data will be made available for public reference.

2. Provide a method for the public to donate books without revealing their identity or revealing any privacy. It is expected that the proportion of books donated by the public will be very low, especially until a way is found to make these books available for public borrowing.

3. Design a decentralized book purchasing model and continue to fine-tune it until it operates smoothly. A decentralized practice means: 1. Book selection by multiple organizations; 2. Benefiting multiple bookstores, distributors, and publishers. As for the source of funds and storage method, etc., it will be relatively centralized in the early stage and will be borne by me first.

How can we support Hong Kong's publishing industry by only purchasing one copy of each book?

If you also buy a copy, then the book is not sold just because of the UBR project. I don’t intend to use the phrase “I see hope because of perseverance”. Any civic action is a drop in the bucket. I only know how much I can do, and doing it is only a tiny bit better than doing nothing. If there are any ways to further help the Hong Kong publishing industry, I look forward to your opinions.

If you think that the publishing industry will always be poor, or simply not worth supporting, I respect your judgment and you are probably right. Then please don’t pay attention to the UBR plan, and just invest your energy and resources in more valuable actions. .

What are the cooperative bookstores?

It is expected to cooperate with no more than 9 independent bookstores, initially including Liu Shushe , North Point Forest Bookstore and Taiwan Enclave Bookstore . The cooperative bookstores and book lists for January will be announced in the third week.

After the project is launched, other independent bookstores in Hong Kong will be invited to join the project.

Wouldn’t it be nice to just buy off-the-shelf books from public libraries?

First of all, the "good news" is that I don't think books published in 2024 will continue to be taken off the shelves of public libraries. Books that the regime does not want people to read will not be taken off the shelves at all, so why should they be taken off the shelves.

Secondly, you have to wait for a period of time to see whether the public library will put it on the shelves before deciding whether to buy it too passively. Moreover, the books on the shelves are still taken off the shelves at any time without any reason, and they are always guided by the regime's "book selection policy" Not a solution.

Will the plan continue through 2025?

It's too early to say, let's collect data on a trial basis for a year and adjust the details before we can prove the feasibility.

I have always advocated "minimum viable action" and I will not plan too far ahead. Even if many details have not yet been implemented, as long as we grasp the core, we will start on a small scale as soon as possible, and then slowly explore and adjust. It is best to be able to continue to operate, but if it proves to be unfeasible, you will not be shy to give up. Failure is normal, and it is impossible to expect every action to be successful.

Will you go back and buy Hong Kong books written in 2023 or before?

Not yet.

If the plan runs smoothly in 2024 and Bitcoin continues to do well, maybe you can go back and buy the previous books, so everyone has one more reason to pay attention to the price of Bitcoin. Well, the fact that I can implement the UBR project with zero government funding is a blessing to Bitcoin, $MEME and other cryptocurrencies.

How will you store the hundreds of books you bought? Will they be available for lending?

Books will be stored in the mini-storage and will not be borrowed for the time being. By the way, so in addition to buying books and logistics, the plan also includes the cost of warehousing.

About half a year later, other possibilities will be explored, including shipping books overseas for storage, entrusting them to other organizations, and holding mobile book fairs.

How can I get involved?

If you think the project is worth supporting, you can go to a cooperative bookstore to purchase one or more selected books of the month and give them to the UBR project. Of course, you can also buy an extra copy yourself.

If you run an independent bookstore and are interested in becoming one of the cooperative bookstores, please contact me .

If you are an independent author or publisher, and the UBR project partner bookstore does not know your new book published that month, please contact the bookstore.

If you agree with the UBR plan and have some spare time, you can spare tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars to directly double the plan, and I can implement it on your behalf.

Why choose paper books instead of e-books?

This is also a question I tortured myself. It is very paradoxical. Obviously I am not obsessed with paper books. I mostly buy e-books. I even think that many books only provide electronic versions. It is more ideal to use the NFT book model to publish, but I actually Initiate the UBR project and choose to purchase paper.

Choosing paper books is mainly due to the fact that the current e-book ecology is very unsatisfactory. Not only is the market monopolized by a few platforms, bookstores cannot participate, but the text is also locked and cannot be circulated. Readers are trapped in a closed garden and pay only for rent. The book cannot be truly owned. Through participation in Enclave Publishing House , Liker Land e-book store , etc., I have been practicing and exploring decentralized publishing such as the "NFT book + small paper book" model. However, even if decentralized publishing can become a new paradigm, it is estimated that It will take another 5 years or more. Until then, I hope to do my best to address the difficulties faced by traditional publishing.

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Original link: chungkin Express