I like to read and write but definitely not as much as my friends K and J. I went to Taipei on holiday for the food but not for the bookstores. But my friends were keen to feed both the belly and the mind. And so it wasn't enough just to visit Eslite (the 24 hour bookstore) and have truffle fries with a view of Taipei 101. We also went to VVG Something.
Located at the area of Zhongxiao Dunhua MRT station, it's easy to get lost on the way to VVG Something. The entire neighborhood is surrounded by other little shops and residences that make you so curious you'd make a sudden turn to an alley and you're lost. But it was also how we realized that the people of Taipei are truly kind. While asking for directions, one immediately took out his smart phone, got the website and called the shop and walked us right to where we needed to be.
Owned by Grace Wang, VVG simply means very, very good. Her philosophy is to find what is good in life and find products that embody it. Once you get over the colorful plants and flowers outside and the pretty red doors, it's easy to feel helplessly drawn in and way harder to get out.
At the center of the shop, which really just looks like a medium-sized L-shaped room is a massive table full of books. On sale are books on art, travel, design, and culinary that would make anyone go crazy with the hard-to-find English titles. Seeing the spread forces you to immediately wonder if you can afford it and if you still have enough weight allowance to bring it all home. Thinking back, they remind me of shops in Berlin and Hamburg too.
