One is a diversification in the content of the books people read as they gained the freedom to read what they like. As part of this overall trend, we can also see a decrease in sales of scholarly works in the humanities and social sciences. There are two major reasons for this development. One is political. Despite the partial relaxing of restrictions on book publishing, the industry remains far from being entirely free.
Most books still retain salient ideological or political elements.
As popular attitudes shift away from politics, readers naturally tend to give books of this sort a wide berth. The second explanation is economic. According to a survey by China Book Business Report, the top reason respondents didn't buy books was that they were too expensive. Book prices soared in the nineties, rising 30 percent in 1995 alone. Scientific and academic works are particularly pricey, costing the equivalent of a day's pay for the average worker.