A life full of books

For decades, Phan Trac Canh’s building at No. 5 Bat Dan Street has been a familiar destination for book lovers in the capital city.

When Phan Trac Canh tore down his house to build a new venue, his neighbours all thought he’d put away his old books and turn to hospitality. But to their surprise, he hung a sign on the gate that said “Old book store”. For the following two decades, the building at No. 5 Bat Dan Street has been a familiar destination for book lovers in the capital city.

The owner, now in his 60s, impresses people with his humble manner and deliberate way of talking. His face lights up when I mention reading and books in Hanoi. He is the owner of over 300 books about this 1,000-year-old city and he is very proud of it.

However, 20 years are long enough for the old book collector, Phan Trac Canh, to accumulate a much bigger collection.

Canh still remembers the time when he arranged hundreds of old books on an old wooden plank-bed in his crumpled store. “They brought us little profit,” he says. “But I still decided to invest more in them by building a larger and proper home for them because I really loved them.”

With that love, Canh has furnished all the rooms in his four-storey house with walls of books which he estimates weigh around 10 tonnes. To visit his library on the third floor, readers must slide through a narrow staircase lined with them.
Over the years, his old book store has become a familiar name among locals and expats living in the city. “Sometimes we receive guests who speak different languages and we mainly communicate through gestures,” he says, “But we all understand one another through the books.”

Collecting books is his hobby and through it he has made some enduring friendships. They include Kawaguchi Kenichi, a Japanese man who studies Vietnam, Hanoian scholar Nguyen Vinh Phuc, and many other researchers from Russia and France. They often come to No. 5 Bat Dan to read books and chat with Canh when they visit the country.

Although Canh collects books of all kinds, his Hanoi books top the catalogue. When I ask him a few questions about the capital, he scours the shelves and reaches for an appropriate publication to illustrate his point. All kinds of questions are answered in this way, from information on Hanoians themselves, to economy, history, and art.

Many researchers have asked to buy his old books but he always refuses. “They are invaluable to me,” he explains.

Canh’s own past is wrapped up in these books. He takes down a picture book of Hanoi, opens it carefully and shows it to us. “It has my childhood in it,” he says in a low voice. “Here is my Bat Dan Street at that time.”

The old man also points out some of his old friends in a book titled “Hanoi students anti-war movement”. It is easy to understand why he treats them with such reverence.