It was with delight that I heard about this bookshop on Dong Khoi Street, which Chuck found in his wanderings during my food-poisoning episode. I could not pass it up when I learned about wondrous music, French books, and his passion: maps, lots of maps. It turned out that the Xuan Thu was across the street from our hotel Continental. By that time, I had seen several bookshops in both Hanoi and Saigon; it seemed that the Fahasa chain also manages this shop, as there is another one on Le Loi, but the variety and richness of the French literature was missing. Xuan Thu has French novels, including those of Marguerite Duras; if you saw the movie The Lover , this is the story of her mother, who was more animate than the Vietnamese themselves. There are French cookbooks, Vietnamese cookbooks, huge pictorial table books, lots of maps, and a CD section of primarily French and Vietnamese music.
I was very surprised at the lack of English literature of any sort. I found a couple of city guides in English, dictionaries and English workbooks numbered 1 to 6, and newspapers.
The Vietnam Investment Review is the most popular magazine in the country and has a separate pull-out entertainment section for visitors. You can find this here at the bookstore as well.
It was here that I picked up my book on Vietnamese history.
Keep in mind that in general, copyright laws in the country are fairly loose. That goes for music as well; I purchased a wonderful French CD that was a compilation of songs and promptly forgot it in the store, as I got busy looking through a huge book about Alexandria/Egypt, written in French. Such a book would easily cost $50 to $75 in the US, and here it was only $20.
As usual, I am a magnet for beggars, peddlers of all kinds, veterans, and people who have a story to tell. An ancient man approached me while I was thumbing through my books and started with the usual question as to the country of my origin. He then launched himself into a tirade of how he fought in the war and lost his entire family; I could see where this was going. I was a bit surprised that the store personnel allowed him to wander around the aisles and pitch for money. I was able to extricate myself from the conversation unscathed.
I also purchased my Vietnamese phrase book outside this bookstore, and it really didn’t help me a bit. By the time I could find what I wanted to say, there was no need for me to say it. However, there were some fascinating phrases in there: how to ask for street drugs, how to say that one is stoned, etc.