The Contemporary Night Owl

The flagship Eslite bookstore in Taipei, Taiwan's Xinyi district circa 2013.

After reading this post from the New York Time's Sinosphere blog about the popularity of Taiwan's Eslite bookstore chain and the large number of young people and urban professionals in Taipei who are spending the wee hours of the morning hanging out at the gigantic Eslite bookstore in that city, it's easy to conclude that there still are places in this world where bookstore culture is thriving, despite the disappearance of most independent bookstores in the US and elsewhere in the West.

So what about some of the other bookstores that stay open through the late-night hours? Where can some of those be found these days? In no particular order, here are ten bookstores and bookstore that stay open late at night:

1.) The Sanlian Taofen Bookstore. While Eslite caters to night owls in Taiwan and Hong Kong (and soon, in a couple of cities in mainland China as well), one of the major Sanlian Taofen bookstores in Beijing began catering to night owls in that city in April of 2014 when it started staying open for 24 hours a day.

Like Eslite, the Taofen Bookstore has a library-like atmosphere where readers who aren't sleeping can immerse themselves in a novel all night and enjoy a little peace and quiet from all the pressures of daily life.

According to this article from CCTV, Sanlian's year-long experiment in late-night bookstores has been such a success that a second 24-hour Taofen bookstore near Beijing's Tsinghua University campus has opened as well!

2.) Shibuya Publishing Booksellers. One of Tokyo's coolest bookstores is one that stays open until midnight!

Shibuya Booksellers is located in Tokyo's Shibuya shopping district. One of the many things that make this bookstore different from others is that it organizes its books by theme rather than genre or author. For instance, you might find Haruki Murakami's After the Quake grouped together with books on earthquakes or geology. Apparently books here were organized by the decade in which they were published a few years back, but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore.

Also, unlike other bookstore chains, they don't limit their selection of books to books only published by Shibuya Publishing. They sell many other books from a wide variety of other publishers as well as magazines from around the globe. Of course being in Japan a big chunk of their selection is in Japanese, but they do have some English language books for sale.

The bookstore also features a coffee bar and art installations, making it the perfect place for a hipster to hang out at night!

For more info about Shibuya Booksellers, please see their homepage or be sure to check out TimeOut Tokyo's special review on them at http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/venue/2113/Shibuya-Publishing-Booksellers.

3.) Dussmann das KulturKaufhaus. Another bookstore that stays open until midnight is the Dussmann das KultureKaufhaus bookstore in Berlin. This gigantic bookstore, which is located in eastern Berlin's Friedrichstraße shopping district, is five stories tall and sells media of all kinds ranging from books to DVDs to CDs to calendars and much more!

Also featured in this bookstore is a restaurant, Catherine's, and an English section (featuring a massive selection of over 6,000 English titles) that is now a "shop within a shop".

This bookstore is perfect for spending a whole day (or a whole night for that matter!) just shopping around and taking in what the store has to offer!

4.) St. Mark's Bookshop. Having been in business since 1977, St. Mark's Bookshop in New York City has stood the test of time as far as bookstores go these days!

Located in NYC's East Village, St. Mark's stays open from 11 am to 11 pm everyday except Sunday and is the place for book lovers to go once all the other book stores close for the evenings! They have an amazing selection of books to choose from and host upcoming events such as author readings and magazine launches.

This is definitely the place to go if you love to spend an evening surrounded by books and literary events!

5.) City Lights Booksellers and Publishers. One of the USA's most historic bookstores just happens to be one that stays open until midnight!

City Lights Books was founded in San Fransisco, CA in 1953 by the Beat Generation poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin. It was a place where Beatniks could congregate and read poetry during the 1950s and early 1960s and where hippies could turn on, tune in, and drop out a generation later. It is also the first all-paperback bookstore in the US.

To this day, City Lights has remained true to its independent roots and carries a nice stock of the latest titles ranging from best-sellers to thought-provoking, controversial classics of the past century. The atmosphere in City Lights is very alternative...as it has been since the day it first opened its doors. The ailes are maze-like and the store is decorated with signs containing hand-written messages!

6.) Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe & Grill. For night owls and book lovers living in Washington, DC, the one place to go is Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe and Grill. As you may have guessed, this is a book store, bar, cafe, and restaurant all rolled into one. Founded in 1971, Kramer's prides itself on being both an indie bookstore and a restaurant/bar where a night owl who loves eating out at midnight or later can do so!

Kramer's is open from 7:30 am-1 am everyday except Friday and Saturday, when they stay open until 4 am.

This place is a dream come true for night owls!

7.) Eslite Bookstore (Hong Kong). At the time of this writing, Eslite's Hong Kong store also happens to be the only late-night bookstore in the territory. Spanning three stories high, this giant bookstore has quite a few English and Chinese book titles to choose from!

During the week, Eslite HK stays open from 10 am-11 pm and from 10 am-2 am on Fri-Sun nights.

8.) Book City. Since 1976, Book City has been one of Toronto, ON's most popular indie book store chains. Initially opening its doors in the Annex district, Book City has branched out across the city and has been one of Toronto's premier book store chains for nearly four decades now. Furthermore, their Danforth location keeps their doors open until 10 pm on Mon-Wed and 11 pm on Thurs-Sat.

9.) Powell's City of Books. No list of late-night bookstores would be complete without this store! Located in Portland, OR, Powell's City of Books is a colossal bookstore spanning a full city block with well over a million books in their inventory, which strongly justifies their claim to be the world's largest independent bookstore!

Powell's offers over 3,500 sections of books, an art gallery that features a monthly art exhibit and author events (often featuring famous authors, artists, poets, and more), do-it-yourself book publishing, and of course, coffee and espressos!

Powell's stays open from 9 am to 11 pm 7 days a week, making it a prime nighttime hotspot for Portland.

10.) Liberarte. Buenos Aires's Avenida Corriente (Corriente Avenue) is a long avenue of intellectual and nightlife hotspots that stay open during the night hours long after the rest of the city has gone to sleep.

One of the top late-night bookstores along this thoroughfare is the Liberate bookstore. This is a place where Argentine booklovers and intellectuals who aren't sleeping can come and discuss some of the latest literature. However, it is much more than that. It's an eclectic mix of a bookstore, CD/DVD store (with its own movie club), and theatre!

In addition to books, Liberarte has a theatrical hall that hosts theatrical, dance, and comedy performances from renowned performers at night (from both Argentina and elsewhere in the world), as well as book readings and discussions from some of Argentina's most famous writers, and a publishing house that publishes a number of new book titles.

For any night owls visiting Buenos Aires, this is a place you won't want to miss! For more information about Liberarte, see the following website from the Buenos Aires city government: http://www.buenosaires.gob.ar/areas/cultura/cpphc/sitios/detalle.php?id=34 (Spanish language only)

Know of any other bookstores in this wide world of ours that stay open during the late night hours? Do you have any experiences with any of the above bookstores? Feel free to share your experiences in the Comments below!


Credits and Notes:
*Eslite bookstore picture credit: Kwongning210. Used via Wikimedia Commons per Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. 
    The Eslite Bookstore chain is owned by and a copyright of the Eslite Corporation based in Taipei, Taiwan. This blog is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Eslite Corporation in any way, shape or form. Furthermore, the blog is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of the other bookstores listed above. All listings in this post are a result of the author's own independent research and initiative.

	New York City's Times Square circa 2005, with the Panasonic Jumbotron in view.

Have you ever been in a major international city (especially a metropolis such as NYC or Tokyo) and caught a glimpse of a video billboard projecting a hi-tech ad or some other kind of programming? Or some other kind of enormous image being projected on the side of a building? Ever wondered about the history of the technology behind these amazing images? Let's have a look at the earliest and most groundbreaking giant screens...

Giant screens in unconventional outdoor settings as a medium of advertising, broadcasting, and relaying information gradually caught on throughout the mid-20th century. These screens enable advertisers to catch the public eye with dazzling, eye-catching ads or commercials (or TV shows and news broadcasts for that matter) and reach a wider audience than with traditional media such as television.

In 1933, the most famous and at one time, most common example of a giant outdoor screen was debuted to the world when the first drive-in movie theater opened in Camden, NJ, USA. This theater, which closed its doors after a mere three years, set the stage for thousands more like it to open across the US. Drive-in theaters would become a pop icon and an important part of the American landscape in the 1950s-60s.

In 1936, the British movie Things To Come (adapted by producer Alexander Korda and H.G. Wells from Wells's novel The Shape of Things To Come) featured a giant outdoor screen over which the public could gather and watch politicians give speeches from a broadcast studio. Ironically enough, this vision of the future was already becoming a reality with the historical developments in television technology made during that time as well the debut of the first drive-in theaters! Things To Come was an early preview of things to come in the world of broadcasting.

On America's Election Day in 1947, a giant screen popped up in an unlikely place: Starkville, Mississippi. This screen was erected on a drug store in town by the owners of the local newspaper to announce the local, statewide and national election results to people attending a large election party in town. As the results were announced (including the election of Miss. judge John C. Stennis to the US Senate - a seat he would hold for 42 years.), townspeople watched them live on the screen. This was a forerunner to Election Day TV coverage, which was just a few years away.

The "ancestor" of the video billboard or video screen as we know them today was created by one of the companies who has made good use of and pioneered it over the past few decades: Sony. In 1961, Sony debuted the Sony Scope, which was a huge movie projector that projected images such as public service ads, manga shorts, and Sony product commercials on buildings owned by the company in Tokyo. The Sony Scope, which was discontinued in 1964, was fired up several times a week at night and was extremely hi-tech when it first came out.

In the 1960s-70s, a new technology was developed which would revolutionize the world of advertising and broadcasting: LED technology. With their bright colors and long life, LEDs have enabled a whole generation of video screens, billboards, and more to be created, ranging from small video displays on store shelves to the gargantuans mentioned in this post! In 2004, what was then the largest LED display in the world was unveiled in Las Vegas, NV at the Fremont Street Experience. Since then, gargantuan LED displays in Suzhou, China and at an Absa bank location in Johannesburg, South Africa have successively taken the title as the world's largest LED screens.

One of the first Jumbotron models at Expo '85.

Sony would create another milestone in both large-screen televisions and giant screens when it unveiled the Jumbotron to the world in 1985 at the Expo '85 World's Fair, which was held in Tsukuba, Japan. This giant TV and video screen is based on LED technology. At the time it premiered, this TV was one of the most state of the art and largest ever manufactured. Five years later, the first Jumbotron was installed at One Times Square in New York City. Throughout the early and mid-1990s, this Jumbotron showed programming such as news, weather, music videos, "infotainment" programs, and The Late Night Show with David Letterman to the masses of people passing through Times Square at any given time. In 1996, Sony shut their Jumbotron down and that was soon replaced with one from their rival, Panasonic. That Jumbotron was in turn replaced in 2010 by one from Daktronics.

Other Sony Jumbotrons were installed elsewhere in the world, including what was, until 2005, the largest in the world at the former SkyDome (now named Rogers Centre) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The Galleria in Seoul, South Korea.

One of most spectacular giant LED screens in the world is that of The Galleria in Seoul, South Korea. This massive screen, which was created in the 1990s, is powered by LED lights and engulfs the entire main building of the mall! It displays LED people, flowers, messages (which seem to be mostly in Hangeul), and more.

At the time of this writing, the world's largest video screen is located at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Charlotte, NC, USA. This screen, which is 61 meters long by 24 meters wide (200x800 ft.), is a Panasonic HD set that went into operation in 2011. This screen gives a spectacular view of the race to the audience...and anyone who happens to be within viewing distance of the speedway! However, that screen will soon lose its title this year when the Texas Motor Speedway in Dallas, TX, USA unveils its new "Big Hoss TV"! That screen is a massive HD screen measuring 66 meters wide by 28 meters wide (218 feet wide and 94.6 feet) tall!

Other noteworthy giant video screens include the screens at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai, the Dallas Cowboys screen at the AT&T Stadium in Dallas, TX, USA (which was the largest in the world until the Charlotte video screen came along), the Houston Texans' screen at the Reliant Stadium in Houston, TX (currently the largest in the American NFL), and the Tokyo Racecourse in Tokyo, Japan. All four of these screens are Mitsubishi Diamond Vision screens.

Over the decades, giant video screens, video/LED billboards, and more have been used to display movies and other entertainment programs, advertise products, broadcast news and information to large numbers of people, and magnify live events such as sporting events and concerts. Political leaders have reached massive number of supporters (and opponents) with these video screens. The screen in Things To Come has definitely become an everyday reality in our modern world.

Links:
http://www.oobject.com/category/giant-screens/
http://www.urbanscreens.org/ (A website dedicated to giant screens in urban society.)
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/31/business/media-business-advertising-sony-s-times-square-jumbotron-has-begun-attract.html (A New York Times article from 1993 about the Sony Jumbotron.)
http://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/2005/01/leds-transform-department-store-in-seoul.html (An interesting article from LEDs Magazine about the LED lights of Seoul's Galleria Mall.)
http://www.digitalsignagetoday.com/article/210081/Jo-burg-digital-signage-install-billed-as-world-s-largest-LED-display (Article from Digital Signage Today about the LED display in Johannesburg, South Africa that became the world's largest in March 2013.)

(Image Credits: Times Square: Jorge Royan.  Expo '85 Jumbotron: ころぞう/Ubcle. The Galleria: Christian Richters. All images used courtesy of Wikimedia Commons) 

The iconic "Jesus Saves" neon cross in New York City.

Today's blog topic is one many night owls - particularly those who spend any significant amount of time on the road - are probably familiar with: Neon church crosses.

Neon church crosses that light up the night sky are one of the most famous symbols of nighttime America. They can be found along many major American highways and interstates and in some inner city neighborhoods. Neon crosses can be found on top of church steeples and on the sides of various other buildings across the country, inviting the public to come to church or acting as beacons of comfort at night for anyone with troubles on their mind. During the Christmas season, they spread a bit of Christmas cheer along dark stretches of interstate highway where Christmas decorations might be sparse. Most importantly of all, neon crosses have become messengers in the night which help spread the message of Christ during the nighttime hours when most people are asleep.

For many centuries, crosses on top of churches have pointed us in the direction of Heaven, lifted the cross of Christ to the world, and much more. Neon crosses have served all of these purposes for many decades now. It's unclear when and where the first neon cross was created in the USA, but neon signs in general became highly popular in the United States during the 1920s-1930s. It can only be assumed the first neon crosses appeared on churches during this period.

For the next five decades onwards, neon crosses would pop up all over America. Many of these crosses have become historical landmarks. One such cross is the famous Route 66/I-55 neon cross over St. Paul's Lutheran Church (also known as the Church of the Neon Sign) in Hamel, IL. This cross was erected in 1946 in tribute to Oscar Brunnworth, a local soldier who was killed in Italy during World War II. This cross has been a source of inspiration and comfort to many late-night drivers driving along I-55 ever since it was erected. Another famous American neon cross is  the foreboding cross hanging over St. Paul's House in Manhattan, NYC which has warned passers-by that "Sin will find you out" for six decades now since it was erected in the 1950s. Also in Manhattan's Alphabet City neighborhood is the iconic "Jesus Saves" cross, which has made appearances in TV shows, movies, websites, and more.

In the 1970s, the number of neon crosses (and neon signs in general) began to drop in the US due to complaints about light pollution and rising electricity and maintenance costs. There are not nearly as many neon crosses now as there once were, but they are still very much a part of the American nightscape.

The Suwon Jeil Church in Suwon, S. Korea.

In addition to the US, there are other countries where neon crosses have become a familiar part of the nighttime landscape. One such country is South Korea. In the ROK, red crosses can be found all over the country. They are on top of virtually all Protestant churches across the country, including in the capital Seoul, which has earned it the informal nickname of "the city of the neon crosses"! These crosses serve very much the same purposes as the neon crosses in America do. And on top of Aegibong Hill near the DMZ separating North and South Korea, a huge electric Christmas tree tower is lit every year for 15 days which broadcasts a visual message of peace to the North through the Christmas season. This tower can be seen as far away as the North Korean city of Kaesong. However, some of the red neon crosses that have popped up in Korea may not exactly be a symbol of traditional Western Christianity......

According to a July 2008 article from the Asia Times Online, some of these red crosses have a meaning that goes beyond traditional Christian symbolism. In Korea, red crosses are also symbolic of the Donghak, or the "Eastern Learning" movement indigenous to Korea. These crosses reflect the "Poguk anmin" ("Protect the nation and secure peace for the people" in English) mantra, which is the call for a return to Confucian ideals and a Korean identity not shaped by foreign influence. In this case, these crosses are a call for Korean Christians to practice a more Korean-specific form of Christianity.    

Shanghai's Muen, or Moore Memorial Church in 2007.

One other neon cross that deserves special mention is the neon cross on top of the Muen Church in Shanghai, China. Erected in 1936 when the church was known as Moore Memorial Church and inspired by the neon crosses in the US, this red cross stood out in the city's nightscape when all around it were neon signs advertising nightclubs, dance halls, and all the other "party hard" establishments that are part of any major city at night. After the Communist victory in mainland China in 1949, all the neon lights - including the Moore Memorial Church cross - were turned off by the authorities. The cross would not be turned on again until 1988. Today the Muen Church is surrounded by office buildings and billboards advertising the latest iPhone, but it still stands out in the midst of the urban hustle and bustle, just as it did in the 1930s and 40s.

Other countries which have their own neon cross traditions include the Philippines, where blue neon crosses can be seen in cities across the country at night; Vietnam, where the neon lights of the Nha Trang Cathedral can only be described as stunning, and the UK, where a blue neon cross adorns the top of the Round Chapel in the Lower Clapton district of London's Hackney borough.

Since they started making their first appearances in the night skies all those decades ago, neon church crosses have been a source of inspiration for many, have become historical landmarks, and have carried Christ's message throughout the night. They have also become a means of guidance (both spiritually and navigationally) and have soothed many a soul, Christian and non-Christian alike.

Links:
-http://route66news.com/2011/01/01/the-old-neon-cross/ (Article about the Hamel, IL neon cross.)
-http://www.religiousproductnews.com/articles/2007-February/Feature-Articles/The-History-of-Church-Steeples.htm (The History of Church Steeples)
-A Protestant Church in Communist China: Moore Memorial Church, Shanghai 1949-1989 by John Craig and William Keating. Excerpt from Google Books about the church's neon cross.
-http://www.idealshanghai.com/venues/3756/ Website about Muen (Moore Memorial) Church.

(Image Credits: "Jesus Saves" pic: David Shankbone. Suwon Jeil Church pic: Zubro. Muen Church pic: Kwz. All images used via Wikimedia Commons.)