The blossoming of a book love
In the blink of an eye, I have passed half of my life. In 2004, when I left the remote countryside hometown bordering Cambodia to go to Saigon to pursue my campus days, the British Council's reading room was such a wonderful knowledge garden for a young person like me.
The annual fee at that time was quite expensive for students, opening time was quite late at 12p.m. But our group of close friends still got together for a quick lunch, or sometimes skipped lunch, to be immersed in authentic English source material and the most up-to-date reading materials. Thanks to this knowledge portal, I had access to the internet, I read Shout magazine and other English magazines as quickly as I could, I also wrote an email to Shout magazine and received my first email in English. I have been and always feel happy when I was lucky enough to find a space where I could immerse myself in copyrighted English books. Honestly, without this space I would not be able to afford to read these copyrighted works.
I still remember how I was trembling when I participated in the presentation on World Book Day 21/4. I entered that Book review contest only because I knew that the participants would be able to get an original English book as a gift. From the day I stepped out of my comfort zone just because of a beautiful book in English, until the day in 2010 when I received the "Văn học tuổi 20" Award, and I was as one of the young authors, I took my first step into the world of writing.
In 2013, ADGE and TNT Theater Britain took Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, directed by Paul Stebbings, and premiered at the Ho Chi Minh City Opera House. I was so lucky that I was able to fully enjoy the show in English, thanking to my days immersed in the precious and expensive English materials at the information corner of the British Council when I was a student. Those days have seen me becoming a more open-minded and confident person, helping me to remain steadfast in my journey with my love of books. My journey of literature and reading culture is still going on through ups and downs as the book world is inherently deep and gentle, less viral than new media channels… On my journey, I still have a warm thankful room in my heart for the British Council library, which has helped to nurture the flow of English literature in me in such a fresh and gentle way.