Are city dwellers 'suffering' from a lack of interest in reading?

"I've noticed that young people's reading habits and skills have gradually changed. The reluctance to read is increasing among them, even when books are provided for free, and the reading culture is increasingly leaning towards 'instant' technology: quick reading, short reading, and thin reading."

Many students are reluctant to read thick books, classics, theoretical books, or even specialized books. Meanwhile, they spend a significant amount of time accessing websites and social media.

In my opinion, to partially address this 'problem,' the management staff and lecturers must be the pioneers in visiting the library, first to cultivate this habit themselves, and then to set an example for students to develop and ignite their passion for reading."

"My friends and I also read books, but mostly reference books and specialized books for our studies. I'm familiar with classic literary works, but I don't have much time to read and understand them thoroughly."

From my personal observation, many young people read books these days, but most of them read romance novels. The reason is that romance novels are romantic, dramatic, and the male and female protagonists are usually portrayed as beautiful, talented, young, and successful... which perfectly suits the psychology and dreams of today's generation.

"I think in this day and age, it's not necessary to read physical books; reading e-books is also a good idea."

"Every weekend, my mom takes me to the library to read books. At first, I didn't like it much because you can't run around or make noise in the library, but later I found it... quite nice."

I love reading comic books the most. The library has a separate reading room for children, with pink tables and chairs and lots of cute animal drawings, so my friends and I often arrive early to choose the best seats.

"But very few of my classmates know about the library. Only I and one other friend are brought to the library by our parents to read stories."

"I'm not a very good reader. Like many other young people, I'm heavily reliant on the internet and social media. Everything I need is there."

I myself have never known about or attended any programs or events promoting or celebrating Vietnam Book Day. I've only been invited to perform a couple of times at book launch events for young authors in Hanoi. "Ah, so this is a book launch, so there are events like this!" What I mean is that the promotion and communication of book-related programs and events are still very poor, their reach is low, and even though these events are aimed at young people, they are completely unaware of them.

If Nghe An could organize large, attractive, and youthful book events like the book streets in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, I would definitely go and buy a few books, why not?”

“The coffee-book concept actually only came about after the cafe was built, and a few close friends brought books to read. I observed them and thought to myself, the cafe's space is beautiful and quiet, it would be perfect for a coffee-book cafe! And so, as you can see, four spacious bookshelves with hundreds of books appeared, and over time, customers came to the cafe and showed great interest and support.”

In my opinion, young people today are indeed lazy when it comes to reading. But if you have a nice, suitable, quiet space and a few short story books nearby, it wouldn't be difficult to encourage them to read."

"Currently, the provincial library welcomes about 4,500 readers per year, of which about 2,000 are children and teenagers aged 2nd grade and below, about 700 are young adults aged 16 and above, and the rest are elderly people."

According to calculations, only about 1 in 107 people in Vinh City visit a library to read books, which means less than 1% of the population!

On the other hand, the provincial library currently has about 17,000 books, averaging only 0.2 books per person per year.

According to statistics from the Publishing Department, on average, Vietnamese people read 2.8 books and 7.07 newspapers per year, with the most popular type of book among young people being... comic books (60%). This is far too low compared to many countries in the region, such as Malaysia, where the average is already 10-20 books per person per year.

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