But for the proliferation of calligraphy and the almost entirely Asian population, the 15th annual Taiwan book fair could be taking place in Frankfurt or London or even New York. For five days last week, the local Taipei convention center was overtaken by books and book people who go about their business in much the same way as book folk everywhere: by stocking their booths floor to ceiling with new titles, by scheduling back-to-back meetings to discuss rights, by attending industry seminars and, oh yes, by late-night partying. And while here, as everywhere, there is concern that the publishing industry is entering a "comparatively slow stage," admits our host, the outgoing fair director and Locus Books CEO Rex How, there is no slowdown in competition.

While mainland China has recently emerged in Western consciousness as the market to watch, Taiwan is quietly, carefully holding its own. The Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE) is still the largest in Asia, with exhibitors and visitors from 40 countries. As at BEA, the TIBE booths are stocked with books, but unlike BEA, the titles (almost all paperback) are for sale, and usually to consumers, not booksellers. (There are some niche independent stores, but bookselling in Taiwan essentially means two large chains, and because the stores are so large there isn't much negotiating over what to stock. Most stores carry most of the 35,000+ new titles published every year.) As at Frankfurt, there is a "guest country"—this year, Russia—and the occasional author makes an appearance.

Perhaps the most noticeable difference here is the way titles get bought and sold. "We have virtually no literary agents," says How. In Taiwan, publishers approach authors, or vice versa, without middlemen. (Foreign rights are handled by executives in-house.) But the advance/royalty system is the same, and there's plenty of grumbling, here as everywhere, about returns. Bestsellers rule but I also saw, at the fair and in the stores, a surprising number of midlist American novels (Rita Ciresi), chick lit (Sophie Kinsella) and stacks and stacks of sex books, from the predictable Kama Sutra to the contemporary, illustrated 101 Sex Toys and The Joy of Oral Sex.(One of Locus Publishing's three imprints is sex-only, How says, and that includes what the puritanical West might deem lurid comic books. "They're what sell," he says.)

In fact, to judge from the number of young, affluent people lining up for the fair and visiting Taipei's all-night bookstore at 2 a.m. to find the aisles packed with shoppers, it's hard to imagine what doesn't sell. Language phrase books? Yes. Illustrated histories of China? Check. Even, despite some anti-Japanese feelings left over from that country's 50-year colonization of Taiwan, plenty of manga.

So what's the biggest bestseller of all?

Well, How tells me, Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian has sold 50,000 copies here—and that's pretty good for a country with a population of just 23 million.

But the big winner is Tuesdays with Morrie, which has sold 700,000 copies.

Like Starbucks—which exists here but has not yet begun selling books—some products, apparently, are just plain universal.

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