Spreading reading culture among young people

(Baonghean) - Organized by a group of students from Hue University of Sciences, the Subsidy Period Book Fair took place in Vinh City from November 25 to 27 with more than 1,000 unique books, attracting a large number of people passionate about reading culture in Vinh City.

Young people attentively read books at the subsidized period book fair on the morning of November 25.

Early in the morning of November 25, despite the announcement on the Fanpage about the opening hours, before 7am, the book fair space was crowded with students. "Entering" Vinh City in the cold, drizzly weather, but that weather still could not stop the excitement of many young readers, hoping to find rare, valuable, and unique books.

Van Anh, a student at Vinh University, shared: “When I heard that there would be a book fair in Vinh City, I was very happy. Holding the pages of a book with the scent of paper in my hands is much more interesting than reading an ebook. In particular, the book fair is full of old books, with affordable prices, suitable for students' budgets.”

As the afternoon wore on, the subsidy-era Book Fair became more and more bustling. However, the bustle of groups of young readers passionately searching for books did not seem to destroy the tranquility of a typical reading culture space.

What is special about this book fair, as its name suggests, is that most of the publications were compiled and published during the subsidy period, with diverse genres such as medical books, foreign languages, popular science, literature, magazines, etc. Old books, many of which have faded color, many of which have worn covers, but for the "followers" of reading culture, those books still have an unchanging value not only in terms of content but also in terms of the traces of time imprinted on them.

Many books about the life and career of President Ho Chi Minh, cultural and historical celebrities... such as "The world praises President Ho" (published in 1975), "In front of Uncle Ho's stilt house - Thinking about the Vietnamese lifestyle" by author Trong Duc, attracted the attention of many readers. In addition, famous books in modern Vietnamese literature such as the book series by writer Nguyen Nhat Anh: "I see yellow flowers on green grass", "Seven steps to summer", "Kaleidoscope"...; books by writer Nguyen Ngoc Tu... are also in the "top" bestsellers. All books are discounted by 50%, so with just a few hundred thousand Dong, readers can "bring" home more than a dozen of their favorite books to their bookshelf.

Most students are interested in the subsidized book fair.

With its orderly and professional organization and rich book collection, few people expected that the subsidy-era Book Fair was conceived and boldly promoted by a group of students from Hue University of Sciences. Surprisingly, the Vinh City Old Books event that had previously created a "fever" among many readers in mid-September was also created by this amateur organizing team with an endless passion for books.

Sharing the reason for the establishment of the book fair, Mr. Ha Nguyen Truong Yen - representative in charge of the subsidy-period book fair said: "Originating from the idea of ​​wanting young people to know many books, bringing reading culture to young people when society is increasingly "Internet-ized", 7 students from Hue University of Sciences established the Hue Old Book Fair, operating mainly on a voluntary basis, members spend their own money to buy books at the cheapest price possible and try to balance to sell them at affordable prices to serve readers".

The activity stems from the love of books, so the members lack experience in organizing, are small in scale, and have financial difficulties, but fortunately, they receive a lot of support from readers near and far across the country. Currently, the association has a 400m2 warehouse in Hue with more than 30 tons of books of all genres, the main sources of purchase are from Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Nha Trang.

In addition, taking advantage of the spread of social networks, the Hue Old Book Association is active on Facebook and continuously organizes many old book events in provinces and cities. At the same time as the subsidy-era Book Association in Vinh City, the Hue Old Book Association also operates in Hue City, Gia Lai...

A representative of the Hue Old Book Association said that, stemming from a passion for books and an effort to spread reading culture to young people, the association's activities do not focus on profit. In the near future, the Hue Old Book Association will promote coordination with the Department of Information and Communications and Nghe An Publishing House to organize an old book festival at Ho Chi Minh Square.

Although there are still many difficulties in the context of reading culture facing many challenges in the face of online tastes, we believe that efforts coming from the heart will be rewarded, and joy will be multiplied, like the bright smiles of young readers when they find a valuable book in the space of the Book Fair during the subsidy period.

Thien Thien