Iranian taxi driver turns his taxi into a mobile library

An Iranian taxi driver in the northern city of Rasht has furnished his car with books in a bid to encourage his passengers to read while in his taxi.

Through reading books, Sahel Filsoof believes that people could overcome many of their problems, that is why he turned his shuttle taxi into a mobile library.

“The idea to make my taxi a portable bookcase hit me a long time ago,” Filsoof told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

“I thought reading books may provide the public with some mental fodder and by doing this, I could promote book-reading as well,” he also told IRNA.

The fans of his taxi-library are mostly women and young men, he said and the taxi exhibits now 50 books on different subjects, including psychology, children and history.

According to Filsoof, he had asked the authorities in the public libraries across the Province of Gilan to support his move and he has been granted scores of books to increase the quality of his mobile library.

“When I come across a passenger who asks me for the book he or she had read during the last ride to continue reading, I just realize I am doing a good job.” IRNA reported him as saying.