Bonanza time for bookworms

So, aside from a few guesthouses, which picked up books from forgetful backpackers, there was really no way of getting hold of new reading matter other than swapping titles with other foreign friends.

This soon limits your options if you are a fervent devourer of literature.

Swap shop

In fact, books were so thin on the ground at that time that my reading activities revolved around a rather famous little second-hand bookstore on Pham Ngu Lao Street.

Shop no. 179 doubles up as many things – a small tourist agency, a family residence, and as one of the city’s best kept book-lovers secrets.

Here you will find shelves piled high with all kinds of classics – classic fiction, Jackie Collins bonk-busters, Tom Clancy thrillers, as well as French, German and Japanese literature.

The shelves within bend under the weight of the many tomes they carry, with a helpful alphabetical order assisting the avid peruser.

For an avid reader such as myself, struggling to cope with the dearth of books in the city, this was like stumbling upon book nirvana.

The provenance of these books was the tourists and backpackers who frequent the store, as well as those in the know who would come to swap.

It’s still the place to head for those looking for old guidebooks, cheap Vietnamese-English dictionaries, phrase books for Vietnamese, Mandarin, Khmer or Thai languages.

The owners have amassed a huge collection, with over 10,000 titles, some still in piles waiting to be sorted.

Those pining for the unique smell of second-hand bookshops back home will find the place a simple joy to explore.

The friendly owners were happy for me to trade-in old books for news ones, only charging a nominal fee.

Books galore

However, these days it’s a vastly different picture in HCMC.

Just pop your head round the door of Xuan Thu Bookstore on Dong Khoi Street in District 1.

There you’ll find whole shelves full of pristine Routledge classics – original works by authors as diverse as Jean-Paul Sartre, Carl Jung and Bertrand Russell.

A few shelves down and you’ll find Barnes & Noble editions of classic works of literature, such as Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations and Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn.

For teachers of English, this is the place to stock up on textbooks, workbooks and grammar guides.

The shop also stocks French language titles, too.

Phuong Nam Bookstore on the first floor of Saigon Center now has copies of Cormac McCarthy’s “No Country for Old Men,” the film adaptation of which recently swept the Oscars.

It retails for VND96,000.

The store also stocks the author’s Pulitzer Prize-winning post-Apocalyptic tale, “The Road,” at the same price.

The fiction-fest continues with John Grisham’s popular law thrillers and many famous works by Japanese wunderkind, Haruki Murakami.

This store also specializes in magazines, stocking hard-to-find titles like Vanity Fair and The National Enquirer, as well as Time and Newsweek.

The shop also stocks good quality hardback design and architecture books, perfect for the coffee table.

This is not just a boon for foreigners residing in HCMC or passing through and hoping to pick up a new book.

For the young Vietnamese studying English in the city, the time has never been better to find a book to help them with their language studies.

Of particular interest for English language learners will be the simple versions of classic works, designed for all ability levels.

One such series is the Oxford Bookworm graded reader series.

These go from starter to level 3, increasing in word number and complexity, and feature accessible editions of classic novels by Charles Dickens and Emily Bronte.

Gone are the days of struggling to find a new book to snuggle up with in HCMC.

Now, with so many books to choose from, it’s a case of when you’ll find the time to read them all.

From big-time bookstore…	…to budget swap shop, HCMC now caters to bookworms

By Neil Fitzgerald