Taipei - Taiwan police have arrested a young woman who has stolen nearly 2,000 books from bookstores in the past year to re-sell them on the internet, press reports said Saturday.

Police arrested Fu Shu-chun, 31, in Kaohsiung, south Taiwan, Friday and searched her home - which looked like a library. Fu admitted having stolen nearly 2,000 books from Kaohsiung bookstores and has sold 1,500 of them online, the United Daily News and Liberty Times reported.

Fu said she does not like to read but began to steal books after she was laid off by a factory in early 2008.

Fu stole only books that did not have anti-theft tag, but picked mostly bestsellers and travel books. Her online book business was so good that she has long-time clients and accepts orders for books.

During the past year, Fu was caught shoplifting only once. "I cried and begged the bookstore staff not to call police, so they let me go," the United Daily News quoted her as saying.

In the past year, Fu stole an average of 5 books per day. To avoid being recognized by bookstore staff, she constantly changed her clothes and hairstyle as well as the bag she carried to hold stolen books.

According to police, Fu has made 300,000 Taiwan dollars (about 9,000 US dollars) from selling stolen books. She was turned over to prosecution on charges of theft on Friday. (dpa)