Taiwan’s VVG bookstore is one of the 20 most beautiful bookstores in the world, according to the U.S.-based cultural news website Flavorwire Jan. 31.
“Almost utilitarian but filled with simple old-world grace, this store is a little like what we might imagine our ideal ship’s main cabin to look like,” wrote Emily Temple, a writer for Flavorwire.
Located in eastern Taipei city, the 43-square-meter VVG Something is decorated with antique furniture and exotic souvenirs collected by its owner Grace Wang, who fills the store with books on art, design, photography and gastronomy.
“I love reading and I thought, ‘Why not create a place where customers feel welcome to sit down, relax and enjoy themselves?’” she said in an interview given after the store opened in 2009.
Other establishments to make the top 20 list include a bookstore converted from a church in the Netherlands and another one renovated from an opera house in Argentina.
In Asia, three other bookstores were named by Flavorwire—Bookworm and Poplar Kid’s Republic, both in Beijing, and Daikanyama T-Site in Tokyo.
VVG Something is one of several projects initiated by the Taipei-based VVG (short for Very Very Good) Group, which also runs two restaurants, a cafe and an apartment rental service. (HZW)
Write to Kwangyin Liu at kwangyin.liu@mail.gio.gov.tw