Try Grandma Nitty’s (near shida) on Sunday around brunch time. There is a book exchange that takes place there.
Good Luck
How about used bookstores? Nice as it is to have any English bookstores at all here, I haven’t seen any place that has even a passable selection of this (last I guess?) century’s fiction.
There are some cool used bookshops under the bridge where HsinSheng South road becomes Song Chiang road, and each one has a couple of English titles among the Chinese… mostly reference books though.
I just got this message from the community services centre:
quote:
Do you have books or magazines that you don
Favorite in Taipei: Eslite
For used, rare and out of print books: www.abebooks.com. Great search engine linked to bookstores all over the world. I’ve bought from them several times and my different purchases were shipped from NY, West Virginia, Switzerland and Germany.
Edit: oops, that wasn’t in response to you Miaka. I don’t know of any local used bookstores and was using abebooks to look for specific very old books.
[quote=“MiakaW”]
Also, off the topic, do any of you guys know any used bookstore here in Taipei??
Thanks - MiakaW[/quote]
Try Grandma Nitties on Sunday for book exchange.
Way up north on Chung Shan road is a used book/coffee shop. I forgot the name. Something like I love Books.
On Ding Zhou road behind the Kung Kuan MRT station used to be a couple.
My information may be a little out of date. I haven’t been to Grandma’s place in a while.
Back on topic: I like the Eslite place on Dun Hua road but I’m always afraid I will step on somebody.
[quote]my book collection here in Taiwan (well over 120 books the last time I counted, not including the 80+ books I have purchased for teaching materials and ideas). Did I mention my addition to reading?
[/quote]
Is that an addiction? Shit, then there’s no hope for me – I have more than 400.
Imani, you’re not a motorcyclist, are you? So you probably have not visited the Bikefarm (yellow banner on this site). You really should, as there is a small but eclectic collection of 2nd-hand books there, all in excellent condition, all at excellent prices (around NT$160 per) and they are NOT, repeat, NOT just the crappy leftovers from people’s collections. I absolutely guarantee that if you pop in there you’ll easily be able to spend a few hundred. What’s more, if you call first to find out when Simon’s around, you can bring in books of your own to sell or exchange. You can even throw up a post or two on Forumosa while you’re there.
I was at Bike Farm (4, Lane 157, Sec 3, Xinhai Rd) last night, and they have an excellent selection fo scif-fi at the moment.
Brian
Get thee to Simon’s Bookstore, with not one but two branches - One at Bikefarm and one at Grandma Nitti’s. 
Get thee to Simon’s Bookstore, with not one but two branches - One at Bikefarm and one at Grandma Nitti’s. 8-)[/quote]
I knew Grandma Nitti’s sold used books, but I didn’t know they bought them. Now, before you ask how I thought they got them – donations would be my answer. Even in the US, I came upon some stores that would only take books in trade and/or as donations. They wouldn’t buy. So, I wasn’t sure how GN’s did it.
Do you know if they are picky about what kind of books they take? And, do they give a good price for them? Actually, it doesn’t matter to me too much. I really just want to get rid of them. But, if I’m going to buy a bunch on Saturday, I wouldn’t mind getting a decent price for the ones I get rid of…
There is a second hand book store with mostly chinese books and magazines and a small section upstairs with English books. They also buy but I don’t think they pay much.
Around the Shi da road park area behind the university, it isn’t the alley right beside the university but the second one. The alley also has a brand new Internet cafe called Free’s (I think you can order real food) that renovated after the old one. And the alley has some restaurants there too. Bookstore I think is called Used Book Outlet (second hand) but didn’t really notice its name.
There’s a place on Zhongshan N. Road in Tianmu between Wellman’s Market and TAS, on the second floor, that sells and buys used books.
In reply to quietmountain and others who might have posted earlier in the thread; I am responsible for the bookstore on Sundays at Grandma Nitti’s and Monday to Saturday at Bikefarm. I buy, sell and trade books. Unlike any other bookstore in Taiwan I pay at least 50% of what I sell the books for. Regular customers probably get a bit more. I would guess that 90% of my books go for between 80-180NT.
I am picky to a certain extent because I just don’t have the room to store mountains of crap. This means nothing tatty, no out of date textbooks, no Chinese study books, encyclopedias, phonebooks etc Trashy thrillers can be exchanged for slightly fewer other trashy thrillers. I always want to buy books because if I don’t buy them here I have to buy them online, which costs me more. Last year I spent over US$7000 on books for the store. If you do want to sell books then it’s better to bring them to Grandma Nittis on Sundays. You can take them to Bikefarm but you might have to wait a few days for me to go in and price them.
Much as I dislike blowing my own trumpet- and not yet having been to the new Page One- I would say that my selection of good quality fiction is certainly far better than Caves and probably better than the Tunhwa Eslite. I now have 3-4000 books for sale. However, space limitations mean that at least 40% of these are permanentlyl in my house. So, if anyone has books that they are specifically looking for- especially sci-fi/fantasy from the 1950’s-now ( of which I have 100’s) then please let me have your wants lists and I’ll do my best to sort you out.
thanks
Simon
Does anyone here know of a spot in Taipei where one can swap used books? I’m looking for some English-language paperbacks. Thanks in advance.
Go to Grandma Nitti’s. True, it’s not exactly trading, but for the cheaper books he lets you take half as many in trade.
Yes, I’ve been to Grandma Nitti’s, and I was disappointed, primarily because all the major “foreigner hangouts” in Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung that have books always have them free for the taking/trading. I’m sure there is some place like that in Taipei as well. Or maybe I’m just dreaming…
just an idea… anyone interested in trading should post a list on here… then anyone could work out a trade. it would be easy to keep the lists updated. i’ll start working on mine, i must have a hundred paperbacks around, never saw a good trading place, the used book stores pay you nothing.
good call…i’ve got quite a stack of novels of the literary variety which would no doubt be of good exchange value…
bear 64 and Daltongang:
I would be very interested in exchanging books. I will take the initiative and ask the forumosa.com webmasters if they have any interest in organizing a book swap night at Alleycat’s or somewhere. Or maybe you can send me a list of titles…
Make it happen. I have a paperback copy of About Schmidt that has only been read for four or five pages. (By a little old lady on a Sunday afternoon.)
Make me an offer. (Mistic River would be a good trade.)
I could go for that. I have around 100-200 titles I’d be willing to swap or trade.