Huffington Post picks up a piece from Vietnam news, featuring used book shops in present day HCMC.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/13/used-bookstores-vietnam_n_714522.html
If you don’t know, you would think the city was on wheels. But in some quiet corners, you still find students and researchers actually reading and browsing
just as you would find at a B&N here.
The piece did not mention the rise of e-books, which is very similar to the rise of wikipedia when it overtook Britannica i.e. used book shops will soon follow the way of Tower Records or note pad when I pad overtook it.
In the piece, we learn that used bookshop owners know their stocks. They serve as knowledge curators. A prisoner wrote and asked for a list of books to self-reform.
Or some Vietnamese, before resettling abroad, sell all their books to these shops.
The stacks sit there, waiting to be discovered, to come alive.
The joy of reading will never be overtaken by web surfing or DVD watching.
One reads in order not to be alone.
Linearity triggers other parts of the brain, perhaps makes all sorts of connection and link.
Fragments of information finally joined in and mashed up to help one connect the dots.
The same way wiki contributors are helping to shape world’s evolving knowledge.
So used book stores in Saigon stood the test of time: war, post-war, and pre-industrialization.
All sorts of novels translated directly from Japanese, German, East European languages and of course, French.
They are there, dusted everyday, like ancient swords awaiting for our heroes/warriors.
In this case, peace time has turned swords into plowshares.
It’s time to read, learn, and self-cultivate.
It’s time to build knowledge, to catch up with ROW (rest of the world).
I love old book shops. I happened to be born just a block away from them.
But now the journey for me to get to those shops takes 24 hours.
Still I know they are there, awaiting my next visit.
That’s the thing about books: wisdom that stood the test of time. A loyal friend.
Thang Nguyen 555 