Hanoi (VNA) – The Autumn Book Festival, scheduled to takeplace at Hanoi’s Thong Nhat Park from August 22-26, will draw nearly 50 bookpublishers and distributors with around 60 booths introducing a wide range of newbooks at affordable prices.

At a press conference in Hanoi on August 20, Nguyen Ngoc Bao, Deputy Directorof the Department of Publishing, Printing, and Issuing under the Ministry ofInformation and Communications, said that books introduced during the festival willbe on a variety of topics including politics-law, economics, science-technology,literature, culture-society, and religion.

The event is expected to become a chance for readers and writers to meetand exchange, he said.

Bao added that many exchange programmes will be held, along with variouseducational and entertainment activities to encourage the reading movements,focusing on children.

More specifically, readers will have an opportunity to meet famous children’sauthors, including Le Thanh Minh and Nguyen Manh Hung, he said.

Within the framework of the event, a charity programme will be organisedto build 1,000 bookcases for children in the mountainous region of Ta Gia Khauin Lao Cai province’s Muong Khuong district.

The annual Autumn Book Festival, hosted by the Department of Publishing,Printing, and Issuing with the help of community contributions, is hoped tostrengthen the local reading culture, in a movement towards a more educatedsociety.

The event will help to connect book publishing houses and attract moreresources for the development of the reading culture.–VNA