I've talked before about how in Taiwan bookstores are places where people go to get a book off the shelf and sit down and read the book and when they are done put it back on the shelf and leave. I feel a bit bad for the bookstores, but as a consumer this is great. Granted I have yet to do this myself, and it's not really something foreigners here do. I guess we are still traumatized by book shop owners back home yelling "this is not a library!" whenever you even open a book.
That's not to say that foreigners don't read here. If anything being in Taiwan makes most foreigners become avid readers even if they weren't before. It follows that principle of something being more valuable when it's harder to get. Perhaps back home you can easily read whatever you want, but here it's not so easy so you desire it more. Also depending on your situation (how long you have been here, if you have a foreigner ID yet, etc) it could limit your ability to have internet, a phone, tv, etc. so for many foreigners the only entertainment they have for extended periods of time is reading.
So how do foreigners read books? Well long ago it was pretty rough. Basically your only choice were small restaurants and cafes where foreigners out of necessity forced the owners to set up an area for "take a book, leave a book." There are only a few of these places left, but up until about ten years ago, this was the only way to really get any books in English. Granted the selection was low, but you were grateful for whatever you could find.
Now a days it's mostly on Kindles or other tablet devices. But in the few years between book lending cafes until the prominence of e-readers, most people got their books this shop above, Page One. A few years back it was a huge bookstore in Taipei 101. It was great for foreigners for two reasons...1. they had an extremely large selection of books in English that dwarfs those of all other book stores combined. 2. If they didn't have a book, you could tell them and they would get it for you. There is no other store in Taiwan, bookstore or other, that does this.
However no amount of great service could stop their fate. Over the years the store has been shrinking and their once huge and impressive entrance has whittled down to this tiny entrance that makes you then walk through the stairwell to get to the store.
It's just hard to compete in a world where your largest customer base can easily just download a book. Especially since foreigners usually don't like to have a lot of stuff, cause you never know when you are going to move or where you are going to be. Having all the books you want on an e-reader is just too convenient.
