Sappho’s Allusions

The Small Small Bookshop’s owner has always had the nickname, Sha Fu Mao which translates literally to Sand Float Cat. It’s a transliteration from her English name, Sappho. Over time this nickname eventually changed to Sha Mao Mao or Sand Cat.

The Origin of the Store

Sappho’s work has always been to do with books or words. Because of this, after finishing her last job under the influence of a friend who was also opening a store and her desire to help students in the community join a book club. In addition, she hopes that through the bookstore she can make more friends and meet different kinds of people. All of these reasons and her love of books led her to opening the Small Small Bookshop!

What the bookstore means to Sappho

In her eyes the bookstore is not only a place where people who love reading can get together, but it is also a portal into another world. From this other world, you have the chance to meet different people and different points of view.

Family’s Disapproval and Support from Friends

Opening an independent bookstore is not a way to make money, and it can involve a lot of tedious hard work. Sappho’s mother was against the original idea of opening a bookstore. However, her friends fully supported her as they understood how important it is for a person to do something that they truly love in their life.

Sappho’s Favorite Book

Sappho fell in love with reading at an early age, by the time she reached fifth or sixth grade she had already read all of the books in the school library. Sappho said “I like all kinds of books, however there is one book that really was a strong influence on my life. That book is a Chinese book called “Yusheng” and it discusses the events around the Wushe Incident. In this novel, the author uses lots of different viewpoints to look at the Wushe Incident, which was totally different to the version of events that we were taught in our textbooks at school. This book introduced me to contemporary Taiwanese literature.”