VVG Something, Taiwan’s Beautiful Bookstore

For residents of Taipei, accustomed to the city’s fast pace, crowded spaces, and constant traffic, stepping into VVG Something can feel like the world around has come screeching to a halt.

With just 50 square meters to work with, owner Grace Wang has created a space full of books and crafts collected from around the world, one where people can’t help but flip through a few books and while away an afternoon in peace and quiet.

The eye-catching merchandise, sitting around all kinds of other books and pieces, creates an atmosphere where customers can completely lose themselves.

Wang, who got her start running her own restaurant, originally used this space as a storeroom, packing it full of restaurant-related odds, ends, and equipment. A lover of both books and travel, whenever Wang goes abroad she brings back all kinds of souvenirs, books, and magazines, and over time these piled up in her storeroom. In 2009 she decided on a whim to start selling the massive stack of books she’d accumulated, and to display them alongside her collected artworks.

Her book collection is mostly built around foreign cookbooks, photo collections, books on design, and fashion magazines; while her art collection is more varied, including everything from old windows through antique copper cash registers to handmade spatulas—nothing is too weird for Wang. Through this combination of imaginative oddities, the storeroom gradually began to transform into what is now known as VVG Something.

“I just wanted to make a place I liked, that would naturally draw in like-minded people,” says Wang. Moving from restaurateur to bookstore owner wasn’t something she did for the money, but rather in order to share her beloved collection.

An old clothes wringer, a cash register, an iron-made clothes iron, an old typewriter... such unusable antiques are transformed into display ornaments in the store. All have been carefully arranged to create an air of warmth and comfort, and Wang is very much satisfied with the result—a place people can walk into and totally lose track of time.

Each display item has its own story—the pine table in the center of the store, for example, came from a Korean friend who had had to leave it in storage in the US because of its size and wonky construction, as well as the difficulty involved in transporting it. When she had the idea of setting up a bookstore, she realized that table would be perfect, and organized to have it shipped from the US. “Once I brought it in, it felt like it had been made to be put in a bookstore,” says Wang.

It may not have a flashy façade, but inside, VVG Something offers a warm, nostalgic space.

Yet for all the curios on display, the true heart of VVG Something is its books. A long-time bookworm, once she starts talking about books it can be hard to get Wang to stop. While these days consumers are all about ebooks and reading online, she still feels there’s something irreplaceable about physical books.

“It’s an amazing feeling picking up a book, getting the smell of the paper and seeing its design,” she says. The paper, the printing, the font, the layout... everything about a book is a design choice; “Physical books engage all five senses, which is something ebooks just can’t do.”

VVG Something also has books that are hard, if not impossible, to find in regular bookstores in Taiwan. For instance, there is a French cookbook that, by using ingredient-themed bookmarks, helps readers find both recipes and inspiration quickly and creatively, and groups those recipes by main ingredient into convenient mini-books.

Or Japanese collectibles magazine Naturela, which each issue covers carefully selected products, like handcrafted enamel kettles, considered must-haves for any coffee lover.

“Books can inspire people and spark ideas,” says Wang. She encourages her restaurant staff to visit the store and read a few books, hoping this will ignite creative ideas for their cooking.

She has recently been planning to bring in the latest issue of Visionaire, a fashion and art magazine from the UK which is published three times a year in limited quantities, includes work from famous designers around the world, and is released in distinctive designs each issue.

VVG Something already has several previous issues of the magazine, including one that is a collection of photographs packaged in a wooden box, and one made to look like a child’s book-bag, complete with two leather carrying straps. It is truly an unusual sight. The latest issue is a collector’s edition 180 centimeters long, compared with the 100-cm-long regular edition, which makes it the world’s largest magazine. Because of its size, the company Wang usually works with to bring magazines into Taiwan has refused, and she is currently working hard to find a way to make it part of the VVG Something collection.

While most of the store’s books are in foreign languages, there are also a small number of very distinctive Chinese-language books on design, printing, and bookbinding, all carefully selected by Wang.

For example, there is Taiwanese designer Ho Chia-hsing’s The Heart Sutra, From the Heart: A Modern, Artistic Sutra. Taking the writings of two Buddhist masters, Ho has designed a book that uses a semi-transparent rice-paper cover and colored kishu-paper pages to create a physical representation of this spiritual text. On top of this, by working with a calligrapher, he uses the flowing nature of Chinese calligraphy to bring new attention to this old work.

As Wang says, books are about more than just words and pictures—through good design and layout, they can bring ancient texts back to vibrant life.

The eye-catching merchandise, sitting around all kinds of other books and pieces, creates an atmosphere where customers can completely lose themselves.

The creation of VVG Something was a natural process, with Wang following her heart throughout. While she had no blueprints to speak of, Wang nonetheless thought long and hard about where every item and every book should go.

VVG Something doesn’t just provide books and trinkets, but also coffee and seating, giving guests a chance to relax with a good book and a good coffee.

The coffee cups used were specially brought in by Wang from Japan; shaped like loofahs and rough to the touch, they warm up, but don’t burn drinkers’ hands. The combination of cups, coffee, and pure cane sugar creates a surprising sensation.

From her books to her coffee, Wang has stuck to her own, less travelled road, creating a distinctive style of her own. Too many people in Taiwan are just content to try and copy others’ success, she says, rather than blaze their own trails.

“In a lot of things, Taiwanese are like flies buzzing around the latest trend.” For her part, Wang encourages the youth of today to think for themselves and follow their hearts, rather than blindly following fashions and limiting themselves to old ways of thinking. Instead, they should bravely set out to create something uniquely theirs.

She’s well aware that VVG Something isn’t anything on the scale of the other bookstores on Flavorwire’s list, but every store has its own spirit, and no two places can really be alike. As for future expansion, Wang’s in no hurry. If she hits on a good idea, then and only then will she make a move.

Fundamentally, she hopes the beautiful space of VVG Something will help more people to fall in love with reading or find their way back into a long-forgotten hobby, stimulating greater creativity and creating something that is truly very, very good.

The eye-catching merchandise, sitting around all kinds of other books and pieces, creates an atmosphere where customers can completely lose themselves.

The eye-catching merchandise, sitting around all kinds of other books and pieces, creates an atmosphere where customers can completely lose themselves.

The eye-catching merchandise, sitting around all kinds of other books and pieces, creates an atmosphere where customers can completely lose themselves.

The eye-catching merchandise, sitting around all kinds of other books and pieces, creates an atmosphere where customers can completely lose themselves.

The eye-catching merchandise, sitting around all kinds of other books and pieces, creates an atmosphere where customers can completely lose themselves.

The eye-catching merchandise, sitting around all kinds of other books and pieces, creates an atmosphere where customers can completely lose themselves.

The eye-catching merchandise, sitting around all kinds of other books and pieces, creates an atmosphere where customers can completely lose themselves.

The eye-catching merchandise, sitting around all kinds of other books and pieces, creates an atmosphere where customers can completely lose themselves.

The eye-catching merchandise, sitting around all kinds of other books and pieces, creates an atmosphere where customers can completely lose themselves.

The eye-catching merchandise, sitting around all kinds of other books and pieces, creates an atmosphere where customers can completely lose themselves.

In less than 50 square meters, owner Grace Wang has assembled a collection of beautiful works from across time and space, creating a place that is a relaxing escape from the rat race.

The eye-catching merchandise, sitting around all kinds of other books and pieces, creates an atmosphere where customers can completely lose themselves.