After over 20 years on Dong khoi street, the bouquiniste of Saigon will close his doors on Sunday 31 August 2011. The whole block will become a 30-storey building.
The Bookazine bookshop is a familiar sight on the left hand side of Dong Khoi street, at number 28. Inside, it feels just like being brought to a bouquiniste (book stall or store selling old, second hand books in Paris). Wooden shelves are filled with used and new books, postcards, posters, Chinese-French- Vietnamese dictionaries, black and white photographs, old maps and other pre-digital-era media curiosities.
What customers like about the place is its interior: stockpiles of books on the shelves, behind the shelves, on the floor and on the books themselves, stacked all over the place, in this long big room, making it slightly difficult but quite amusing to browse. Furthermore, it has this rustic feeling to it. Combine everything and there is your second hand bookstore with a soul of its own, and what a soul it is.
A bookstore with a soul
« I know it seems messy, Mr Tho explains. But things are not what they seem. All the sections are actually in place! » These sections include English books, French books, art books, science books, old postcards, but also old maps and early 20th century French books, written during the colonial era. These include General Giap book on the strategy he used to win against the French in Dien Bien Phu, or infamous “Un million de dollars le Viet”, original edition written by war reporter Jean Larteguy in 1965 during the American period. If you look for even rarer pieces, you may well have to take a deep breath before you start digging in the shelves as the store offers an absolutely unfamiliar assortment of old and used volumes. Out-of-print editions and simply good books that don't make their way to the other few bookstores in town are all here waiting to be discovered by a determined shopper. « Give yourself a chance, say few hours, and see what you can find », Mr Tho says. He usually leaves the customers on their own, browsing freely through the shelves, wandering around. People look for different things. One day a customer will buy an old LP of Brazilian singer from the 1960s. Another day, it will be an old book in French, from the 19th century about the under-soil of the Tonkin region from a scholar of the Asian Studies Institute.
This bookstore is also a recognizable trademark of many expats living in HCMC looking for foreign dailies like Herald Tribune or Le Monde of the day. « Everyday, I have tons of expats coming for their dailies, Mr Tho says. As some of them have been here for many years, we have become friends now. »
A quiet bouquiniste
Sometimes, at the end of the day, Mr Tho sits on a small plastic stool in front of the shop, smoking cigarettes and sipping coffee from the street vendor nearby. “I love it here, he says. I sit here and I can enjoy the cheapest coffee on Dong Khoi street ! I have everything I want now. I built a house for my family and my children are now in school. I feel so privileged to be able to choose my job, and be happy with it. Some friends come to visit me and we devise about the literature and poetry. I have no stress! How many people can say that in Saigon these days? “
What really drives Mr Tho is finding the rare books which are somewhere in Saigon, in the attic of some colonial house for example. “It’s like a treasure hunt”, Mr Tho laughs. He then delicately takes an old parchment from a behind a shelf. “Look at this for instance! It is an old letter of credit, coming from the emperor himself. Look at the stamp, it is the royal seal from Hue imperial court!” He takes out his glasses and sticks his nose on it, examining in details the whole document. “I am always so impressed when I have that in my hands, he confesses. Can you imagine, this precious document is over one hundred year-old. “ When asked about the price, Mr Tho smiles mysteriously. “It depends on the buyer and on the negotiation. I would like to sell it to someone who is really interested in Vietnamese culture, a collector, a researcher or something like that. I don’t want to sell it to a tourist nor a speculator, even at a high price. It is more than a tourist or money thing. Anyway, I am not in a hurry to sell this piece.” He puts it back behind the shelves, where basically noone can see it…
A customer enters the store and asks for old maps. Mr Tho points toward the back of the store with a smile. “As I said, I prefer the people to have their own experience and let their imagination do the rest”, he says.
