Where have you found the best selection for English computer books in Taipei? The big Eslite on Tunhwa used to be good, but as time goes on the number of Chinese books increases, while the English ones steadily dwindle.
The local distributor for O’Reilly (one of the best publishers of computer books) had a booth at the recent book exhibition. In the back of the book I bought from them their contact info is as follows:
O’Reilly Taiwan
No. 3, Ln. 131
Hang-Chow S. Rd. Sec. 1
Taipei
tel. 2396-8990
You might try contacting them to see which bookstores stock their English titles. Perhaps they’ll even sell you their titles directly.
They also have a website at http://www.oreilly.com.tw/
If you don’t read Chinese, you’ll have to use the regular, US site at http://www.oreilly.com/
If you find good sources of English-language computer books, you might want to add them to the list of Taipei bookstores at http://www.sinica.edu.tw/~kiesch/taiwan.html
Good luck.
–Mark
there’s a place called TEN LONG Bookstore it’s somewhere near Taipei train station. It’s the only place in Taiwan apparently that has all the original English books there…sorry that’s all I know…
There is an excellent technical/science bookstore near TaiDa that I have used for years. It doesn’t look like much on the outside but has a good selection and good prices. The address is:
Hsin Sheng South Road, Sec. 3, No. 96-3
The computer books are toward the back.
I recently visited the store Alka mentioned and was amazed by its selection. I’d be surprised if there is a better computer bookstore – in English or Chinese – in Taiwan.
“Tenlong” (sky, dragon)
No. 107, Chongqing S. Rd. Sec. 1
(this is closer to the presidential office than to Zhongxiao W. Rd., so maybe Taida Hospital is the closest MRT stop)
Tel: (02)2371-7725
URL: www.tenlong.com.tw
The website’s only in Chinese, but you can search for English books as well. I had better luck searching by using a book’s ISBN number, which is easily found through Amazon or some other such site.
I also received a 5 percent discount just by asking. Of course, that didn’t make the book cheap. But 5 percent is better than nothing.
There are Computer Shows in Taipei’s World Trade Center, on Hsin Yi Road, Sec. 5, Taipei. At those shows, you can find all kinds of English language computer books.
Does anyone have the date of the next Computer Show in Taipei?
Yah, Tenlong is a good one except the boss.
you will know what i am talking about.
I visited today for the first time and was quite impressed. Nice to go with low expecations and be very pleasantly surprised.
The selection was very comprehensive and up to date. I was looking for some very specialized excel database connectivity books and found exactly what I was looking for.
I will be going back regularly, that’s for sure.
FEI
There used to be a fantastic store that specialized in computer books and software. It was on the northeast corner of Dunhua and Xinyi, and was called Unalis. They had an amazing selection of English computer books.
They are no longer located at that corner. Anywone know where they moved to?