Many foreign publishers attend HCMC book festival

Huy Nguyen

Organizers said the event at Le Van Tam Park in District 3 will feature 500 booths of 156 companies and publishing houses, up 10% from 2012.

There will be 25 publishing houses coming from the U.S., the U.K, Germany, Japan, Singapore, France, Malaysia and Thailand. For the first time readers will see books from publishers Hacheete Us, Quercus, Simon & Schuster, Scholastic, Richmond and Singapore Asia Publisher.

The foreign publishers will bring here their latest publications in fields such as literature, economics, culture, research and foreign languages. Many of them will have exchanges with visitors during the festival.

Le Hoang, head of the organizing committee, said the presence of the large number of foreign publishing houses proves Vietnamese have great demand for foreign-language books.

On Vietnam’s part, 13 local publishers, 73 book publishing-culture-communications companies, four foreign language centers and 36 toys, souvenirs and stationery trading and manufacturing companies will be attending the festival.

The event will feature more than 200,000 book titles with more than two million copies.

Visitors to the festival will be offered 10 % to 20% discounts from March 24 to 27 and up to 50% from March 28 to 30. Children will have fun with many games available at a 200-square-meter entertainment area.

Readers can also meet up with writers such as Nguyen Nhat Anh, Le Quoc Minh, Phan Hon Nhien and Tran Hung John, as well as a couple of celebrities.

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