Indie Bookstores of Gongguan

The Mollie Used Books store in Shuiyuan Market features high, industrial ceilings and walls lined with towering shelves of donated books. This location functions as a recycling center for ideas, where the community brings thousands of…

Mangasick is a small, glass-fronted shop in Taipei that specializes in underground manga, independent comics, and art zines. Unlike the mainstream bookstores overflowing with popular series, the shelves here hold strange, obscure, and…

Tangshan Bookstore sits in a basement tucked away on a side street near the university, marked by a plain sign and walls lined with academic titles. Established in nineteen seventy-nine, it served as an essential hub for banned literature…

Bookman Books is marked by the tall, weathered sign featuring a distinct, old-fashioned font that stands out against the street’s newer storefronts. Founded in nineteen sixty-one by Robert Pao, the shop began as a small operation importing…

YABOOK is marked by a distinctive, jagged wooden facade that breaks the smooth, gray concrete pattern of the surrounding buildings in the Daxue neighborhood. It functions as an independent bookstore and quiet sanctuary, carved out of an…

The Taiuan-e-tiam bookstore features a traditional red brick facade that stands out against the modern concrete buildings lining the street. Founded by Lin Guan-hua in nineteen ninety-two, the shop served as a dedicated center for books…

Fembooks sits on the second floor of a quiet residential building in the Gongguan neighborhood, marked by a small, unassuming sign. It serves as the only bookstore in Taiwan dedicated entirely to feminist literature and gender studies.…