VietNamNet Bridge – The one-week HCM City Book Festival closed on March 25, with a total revenue of VND30 billion (over US$1.4million) from selling nearly 5 million books.

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Held at Le Van Tam Park, the festival themed “Book – Knowledge – Integration and Development” earned double the revenue than 2010. More than 850,000 readers attended the festival compared to 700,000 in 2010.

HCM City Book Distribution Company (FAHASA) earned the highest revenue, with VND10 billion ($500,000). Publishers with high revenue at the festival include Nha Nam Book, Phuong Nam Book, Young Publishing House and Tri Viet – First News.

The above figures are good signals for the publication industry and the reading culture.

This year’s event gathered about 500 booths displaying around 200,000 titles from 160 local book publishers. However, many readers said that the festival was rather like a book fair and the biennial event was not different in the last 14 years. Publishers said that the festival lacked activities for publishers and experts.

The best-selling book of the festival was Nha Nam’s 200-page novel about the history of maths entitled “Ai and Ky In the Land of Invisible Numbers,” co-written by well-known Math Professor Ngo Bao Chau and blogger Nguyen Phuong Van. Around 10,000 copies of the book were sold.

The runner-up is “The Road Dyed With Sunlight” by Duong Thuy, with 7,000 copies, published by Tre Publishing House.

Other best-selling books include Adam Khoo’s “I Am Gifted, So Are You”, “Understand The Heart” by Minh Niem; “I See Yellow Flowers On Green Grass” and “Give Me A Ticket to Childhood” by Nguyen Nhat Anh.

At the closing ceremony, the organizers gave more than 10,000 books worth over VND350million donated by 25 publishers who participated in the festival to the soldiers on the Spratly Islands and soldiers of the HCM City’s Border Guard force.



Phuong Lan