Sorry for the long absence – I was wondering why (and smirking at) so many people were dressed like bandits and surgeons when I first got off the plane so it was only natural that I find out the hard way. I contracted the flu that’s been going around and while I didn’t get it as bad as my cousin (who’s been sick no less than three times in two months) feverish headaches are the surest way to neglect one’s blog. But the fever’s gone and my desire to walk about and be a part of the community has returned – though no doubt by refusing to wear a surgical mask I risk picking up another one of many flu strands that are going around…My visit to the Taipei International Book Expo yesterday, a Sunday, was probably going right to the disease’s center, but I love books – and I like to live on the edge.
Chinese/Taiwanese people love cheesy animal mascots – but I did like the artwork on this particular poster.
Ladies chatting on bright orange stools – not really reading. This was the booth for LiveABC, one of Taiwan’s largest publishers of English language learning materials.
As I was flipping through this book a young sales girl came up to me and marketed rather aggressively, not giving me a chance to impress her with my English. I left with a brochure and the inability to socialize in English with confidence.
The expo was packed – except for a few of the international booths (India and Turkey looked especially desolate while France and Japan were equally as crammed as Chinese language booths).
I have never heard of this magazine. Good luck to them and their stylist.
The expo atrium.
Never figured out what they were promoting.
The booth for Studio Classroom, an immensely popular and effective English language learning magazine. I have no idea what the stuffed animals are doing in the middle…
…nor any idea what tap dancers are doing promoting government publications…
…or what this guy was talking about to attract the large crowd that stood before him, but these were just a few of the thousand plus booths I walked past.
I ended up buying just one novel at an English books booth after deliberating for more than ten minutes and reading for twenty. I’m a sucker for Victorian murder stories.
VERY HIGHBROW 