Hanoi Book Week

Hanoi’s Book Street is running a seven-day reading festival from Monday, April 21, through Sunday, April 27, for Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day 2026. (en.vietnamplus.vn) The program brings together 14 publishing and distribution units across 15 booths on Hanoi Book Street, with author talks, book launches and sales promotions scheduled through the week. (en.vietnamplus.vn) Vietnam marks Book and Reading Culture Day every year on April 21 under national policy, and this year’s broader national campaign opened at the National Library of Vietnam on April 18 with the theme “Knowledge Flow – From Book Pages to Digital Spaces.” (sovhtt.hanoi.gov.vn, nlv.gov.vn) In Hanoi, local officials and publishers are using the week to push reading in both physical and digital formats, with state media highlighting online components alongside the street-level events. (thanglong.chinhphu.vn, en.vietnamplus.vn) The timing overlaps with National Library Week in the United States, where the American Library Association said on April 20 that 4,235 unique titles were challenged in 2025, the second-highest total it has recorded after 4,240 in 2023. (ala.org, ala.org) That contrast puts Hanoi’s celebration in a wider international moment: one capital is staging public book launches and reader discounts, while U.S. librarians are still counting thousands of censorship challenges from the previous year. (en.vietnamplus.vn, americanlibrariesmagazine.org) Book Street itself has become Hanoi’s recurring public venue for these campaigns, with this year’s events centered on 19/12 Street in Cua Nam Ward and framed by organizers as part of the capital’s reading culture calendar. (daidoanket.vn, en.qdnd.vn) For readers in Hanoi, the immediate window is this week: seven days of book events ending April 27, tied to a national reading day that Vietnam fixes each year on April 21. (en.vietnamplus.vn, lawnet.vn)