Songyan 24-hour bookstore new open!
Welcome to Songyan’s new chapter! The newly renovated eslite spectrum Songyan 24-hour bookstore, named one of “The World’s 14 Coolest Department Stores” by CNN, will have its soft opening on Saturday, 20 January. It will feature a 100-meter-long floor-to-ceiling window that runs alongside the book display area, the children’s bookstore, and the eslite café. The view can be enjoyed from a total of over 200 seats, while a large, open-air balcony overlooks the square below. The new store will provide a round-the-clock haven where readers and travelers from around the world can indulge their taste for good books and fine coffee, against the backdrop of sky and clouds outside. With triple the number of titles previously available, now equal to that of the former eslite Dunnan bookstore, eslite spectrum Songyan invites readers to give their imaginations free reign, discover unexpected possibilities, and ignite new dreams.
Also on the third floor you will find the 24-hour eslite music store, with Taiwan’s largest collection of vinyl LPs and a special classical/jazz area where you can enjoy fine analog sound day and night. eslite‘s exclusive overseas design exhibition of the Japanese mt brand of masking tapes will also launch on the 20th and will be open to design enthusiasts around the clock. And, for three consecutive days beginning on the 26th, eslite is also planning more than 50 arts and culture activities throughout the store, including live music, topical lectures, wine tasting, live podcasts, and a creative market. We invite you to join this cross-border feast of arts and culture!
The third floor will feature Taiwan’s largest selection of art-related books, along with eslite‘s Issue Salon, highlighting current affairs in international publications and a monthly issue focus chosen by our bookstore staff. In the eslite children’s bookstore, colorful illustrations create a whimsical atmosphere and children can express their creativity on its large graffiti wall. Six “family reading cottages” are thoughtfully placed near the window to let parents and children enjoy reading together in the warm sunshine.
On eslite Songyan‘s second floor will be the newly launched eslite stationery store, which will have Taiwan’s largest platform for sampling stationery and writing instruments and a “staff selection” wall introducing new stationery and design products from around the world each quarter. The Gift+ packaging area will display nearly 2,000 cards from 40 different brands and ten different countries to let you convey your warm wishes with a hand-written message. ART LAB, a painting and calligraphy specialty store, will offer more than 600 kinds of professional brushes and art supplies. eslite will further display a gallery of 200 classic fine pens, while its INK Bar provides ink refills to help create a fine, virtually bespoke writing experience for you.
eslite spectrum Songyan should also be seen as one of the world’s most diversified cultural venues, given the way it brings together a 24-hour bookstore, cinema, performance hall, art gallery, wine cellar, artistic hotel, handicraft experiences, fashion design and other diverse elements. Following the soft opening period, you can come and participate in the Japanese mt workshop, visit eslite gallery to view contemporary Chinese art, spend a wonderful afternoon sampling wines from around the world in the wine cellar, or watch a favorite movie. In addition, there will be an Evening Open Book reading club, weekend DJ nights, LP music appreciation, glass blowing, darkroom photography printing, metalworking, and other experiences.
eslite bookstore has also specially designed a limited-edition commemorative card on the theme of “morning light, starlight, divine light,” with quotes from Thoreau, Rabindranath Tagore, and philosopher Walter Benjamin. At the same time, in cooperation with eslite hotel, it will launch its See the Light / 24 Hour Tipsy Library hotel stay project, inviting travelers to sample a new kind of 24-hour reading experience.