The contest area for the 2020 Yangtze River Delta Reading Marathon in the Zhejiang Library in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. [Photo/zj.zjol.com.cn]

The 2020 Yangtze River Delta Reading Marathon took place simultaneously at 111 public libraries throughout the YRD region, which consists of the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui, as well as Shanghai municipality, on Sept 12.

A total of 4,945 people formed five-member reading teams at their local libraries to participate in the contest. The teams were all required to read the same popular psychology book, which had not yet been published, and a team's performance was evaluated according to the total time teammates spent reading through the book and their memory of the book's content.

This year's contest required all participants to wear masks while reading to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Both the first and second-place teams were from libraries in Zhejiang province.

The reading marathon has been held for the past three years and is meant to promote reading in the YRD region. Among its organizers are the Anhui Provincial Library, Shanghai Library, Zhejiang Library, and Nanjing Library.

A mother and daughter pose for a photo while attending the 2020 Yangtze River Delta Reading Marathon at the Taizhou Library in Taizhou, Zhejiang province. [Photo/zj.zjol.com.cn]