I have to confess, I've never been much of a reader, I spend too much time flicking on my mobile and that's bad, I know it 😔.
Independent bookstores seem to be dying out in UK. We used to pride ourselves as a book loving nation, and that's why VAT (currently at 20%) doesn't apply to books. Luckily we still have Waterstones left in our town now, (a lot of the shops have closed down) but it doesn't seem that busy most of the times. They have a cafe attached to it and I noticed the cafe is gradually taking up more space in the store.
Tomorrow is World Book Day, is that promoted in Romania? I believe the industry here still tries to promote books and reading as much as possible, and the fact our Queen is known to know to love reading, has helped quite a bit in the movement.
RE: A culture of readers (?)