I love reading, so when I got to Taiwan the first thing I did was look for the best English language bookstores. I did this in Hong Kong also (if you’re wondering, it’s Swindon Books in TST). After meeting with a friend from Rice, she told me that she thought the Page One in Taipei 101 was the best.

I was skeptical, seems as how the Page One’s in Hong Kong are all pretty limited in their selection (though good for new books, I suppose). I immediately went there that evening and found that she was right, the selection at Page One is quite impressive. I would recommend checking there first for general English books.

I had a special interest in finding a computer book store, seems as how I’m an electrical engineer and I was at least planning to work on some other non-Chinese skills over the summer. I was a bit worried, thinking I’d have to order things and have them shipped. That is, of course, until I found a topic addressing this problem on Forumosa.

Here’s the information from that post: Ten Long Computer Book Co. Ltd. Massive selection of computer books in English. They have a store on the bookstore street near Taipei Main Station. http://www.tenlong.com.tw (02) 2331-8868

台北市重慶南路一段107號1樓

I had some trouble finding it (because I was at the wrong station…but that is another story), but it shouldn’t be that difficult. You just get off at Taipei Main Station, walk towards the train station and turn left at Chongqing street. Then you just walk a few blocks along that road, reading the addresses until you find number 107 and the name 重慶南路.

Anyway, upon entering this book store I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of computer books. Even split fifty-fifty between Chinese and English computer books, the selection was better than any bookstore I’ve been to in the US. They had all the obscure computer books I was looking for and even a few new ones I’m interested in. I was quite impressed, and I recommend that any computer scientists, engineers, or programmer go have a look.

This is just the O’Reilly section