First encounters, last dates, early mornings, late nights; always welcoming to a solitary reader, too. Surely its aisles are the city’s archive -witness to the curiosities and yearnings, happinesses and heartbreak of a whole generation of Taipei book lovers.
Fare thee well, 誠品.

For its 30th anniversary this past summer, Eslite commissioned French architect Emmanuelle Moureaux to create an installation commemorating the occasion.

“100 colors｜光譜漫遊 “ is composed of 8,000 repetitions of 1989-2019.

I was lucky to visit Eslite before it opened to the public-my friend worked for its brilliant,visionary founder Wu Ching-yu. No photos remain but one from later in the evening-how young I was!
Mr. Wu passed away in 2017, at age 66. A reading chair rests in a corner in his memory.