Each of our international book fairies has written a piece about the reading culture where they live. As this is an international project, we hope to learn a lot and share the book love!

Taiwan Reading Culture

From my observation and the research that I did on the internet, reading, unfortunately, might not be the mainstream of Taiwanese leisure time activities. Some experts claimed that young people in Taiwan showed a small interest in reading, and the situation can be closely related to the stressful educational system. Other statistics pointed out that due to the inventions of technology, the expenditure and time spent on books became extremely low. Indeed, I seldom see people carry books on the public transportations and normally the conservations between friends would not be reading-related.

All these above have posed a great challenge to the traditional publisher in Taiwan. However, there are still people who find the happiness of reading print books. For example, the Elite bookstore in central Taipei is like the Disneyland for book lovers. By opening 24/7, it has successfully created a certain level of the reading atmosphere and makes the bookstore packed even at the midnight. Also, since the Elite bookstore harbours a wide range of book collections, it is one of my top choices to browse and pick up some latest English novels. Personally, I often read movie novels, but recently I found the books under the leadership and business category answered me some questions for current chapter of life.

Edison, on why he became a Book Fairy

“I believe reading books can positively influence the culture of a city and each individual has the ability not only to enrich their lives but their hometown, too. Being the first book fairy in Taipei gives me a perfect opportunity to share the happiness, fulfillment, and perspectives that I gained from books.”

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