Online. For me mostly Amazon Kindle e-books, readable on pretty much any device, although if I were starting over I’d be looking into the Kobo ecosystem because I gather it’s a little less locked-in. With some hassle and the Calibre app it’s possible to strip DRM from Kindle books, although I’m not sure if that’s still possible with newer software.
Keep an eye out for special newspaper offers online. I keep getting the New York Times (online) for a dollar a month for a year, then cancelling when the price is about to go up, then getting another $1/month offer a few weeks later. I’m not sure how I got those in the first place … I think it was just from signing up for free newsletters with headlines.
Bookman (physical location here) may be the best for “classics” of literature - I believe it’s the main NTU bookstore, so they have, or at least used to have, plenty of Norton editions. But I haven’t been there in a few years now.
Even back in the heyday of Page One, if I wanted a specific book, I often couldn’t find it - although if I was just browsing and looking to find something to read, it was a good store. eslite was the inferior store back then, and is now far, far worse than it was. There just isn’t the market for physical books - never mind English-language books - that there once was.
Check the websites for both eslite and bookman to see if something is available. For general browsing the display tables on the … 2nd? … floor of the Xinyi eslite is usually the best. Browsing the shelves on the 3rd floor gets odd because books are all over the place.
Amazon does have free delivery if you’re ordering over USD$65 worth, but that doesn’t apply to all books.
If you prefer to read paper only, and not on a tablet or screen, the options these days are very, very limited.
Thnaks for the detailed reply. I’ll check out bookman.
While I am a kindle fan, sometimes I want physical books. Please send me the link for the $1 subscriptions if you ever get those again, and don’t want use them.
It’s surprising that the demand for English language books and periodicals has gone down over the years. I’d have expected the opposite. What do you think is the reason?
Guesses: Fewer westerners here, perhaps? The completion of the HSR is sometimes described as the end of large numbers of expats here, although I’ve never known if that was accurate. Taiwan to some extent giving up on the aspirational globalization/ westernization of twenty years ago: anecdotally, I see far less interest in western culture in my university students than I once did. Possibly lower levels of English with current young people. Worldwide decline in market for paper books due to e-books. And of course, probably most important, time once spent on books is now on social media.
Long ago lots of westerners here on multi year contracts, helping with Taiwan’s boom of the day. Engineers and the like, because perhaps Taiwan’s talent wasn’t quite there yet. HSR was the last project they were needed on, and that set has moved on now. But again, while I’ve heard that, I’ve never been sure how accurate it is.