city of books, Taipei
At Gu Ling Street Taipei has always struck me as a reading kind of city. Maybe it's because it is hard to ignore the Eslite bookstores that seem to be in every part of the city. Which city can boast of a 24hour bookstore in one of its most prime shopping districts? Or that its bookstore chain also operates a hotel in the estate of a fancy restored tobacco factory ? But Taipei is more than Eslite. It has a lively publishing sector that translates many of the latest foreign titles within a year or so. And in some ways, although it is not immune from the general demise of reading and books, its domestic market is secure because the Taiwanese use the traditional script (fan ti) versus China's simplified script. And like many enterprises in Taiwan, I think its books and publishing reflects its spirit of independence. And so with bookstores. These are a few independent bookstores that we've discovered over the years through the recommendations of friends, web...