Just about 3 or 4 years ago, we were still confused when looking at the relationship between paper books and e-books - thinking that the development of one type would lead to the risk of "premature death" of the other. But up to now, perhaps the answer to this relationship has become clear.

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On July 18, the program "Hand-to-Hand Books, Study During Social Distancing" brought thousands of books, hundreds of e-books and audiobooks to people in lockdown and quarantine in Ho Chi Minh City. This is a small proof that e-books and audiobooks are now as popular as paper books. Even during the tense epidemic period, this type of book has become a "lifesaver" for the publishing industry, for readers and a means to connect people.

Since the 1930s, audiobooks were born and used in the US, but they were mainly poetry, so they were not very popular. In recent years, as technology has developed worldwide, reading culture has inevitably shifted. That is when audiobooks and e-books have started to come back and become more widely accepted.

More than 542,000 results in 0.39 seconds on Google search engine shows that the concept of ebooks and audiobooks are becoming more and more popular with the community of book lovers. These are also the two most typical representatives of reading culture in the technology era.

With just one smart electronic device, readers anywhere - whether on the bus, doing housework or exercising, can listen, read, and receive knowledge in a simple, fast and effective way. Information content is compressed into electronic files or transferred to audio format through human voices. Each ebook is summarized into many small chapters; with audio books, each segment is about 10 - 20 minutes long on average.

Not only limited to the content of a book, audiobook fans can also receive a variety of information such as: economics, culture, life tips, entertainment... Among them, some podcast channels, although newly "entered the market", have received many positive compliments from users such as: The Present Writer (Chi Nguyen), Amateur Psychology (Nguyen Doan Minh Thu); Have A Sip (Vietcetera) or Listen to Podcast (VnExpress)...

Technology has become the best solution to connect people with knowledge and world civilization. In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic happening globally, publishing units have reduced the number of copyright book purchases because many major copyright book fairs have been canceled. The London Book Fair in March, the Bologna Book Fair in April or Frankfurt in October... are all major book fairs in the world, now forced to be replaced by online meetings through online platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Team or Google Meets.

“The transformation from offline to online has become an inevitable requirement to adapt to the times. Moreover, the young generation now has access to technology very early, it is not surprising that they will also become consumers of digital knowledge” - Mr. Nguyen Canh Binh, Chairman of Alpha Books Company commented.

According to Mr. Binh, Alpha Books alone has reached nearly 2 million users via Facebook, 300,000 users via the website platform and some other platforms such as YouTube, Instagram. Recently, Alpha Books has continued to create a project - a new form of book access: Online book rental. Through this new book rental service, individuals, families or businesses can comfortably read books while still saving money during difficult economic times, and they also do not need to go to the place to find and rent books.

Another new form of book that cannot be ignored is Voiz FM. In early 2020, WEWE Technology Joint Stock Company officially launched the copyrighted Podcast & Audiobook listening application Voiz FM and presented a test product AI Voice (artificial intelligence voice). In just a short time, this application attracted a large number of users, even becoming a new entertainment choice during the epidemic season. A real survey showed that when asking 10 young Vietnamese people about a quality audiobook application, up to 6 of them answered Voiz FM.

In the past two years, many “bookworms” have admitted that they not only love paper but also love smartphones - a convenient “smart” tool that integrates almost everything they need. The trend of changing reading methods to e-books and audiobooks is completely natural, when these types of books completely do a good job of providing information and knowledge, are cheaper than paper books, are convenient to use, and are especially suitable for the current “context” of social distancing.

E-book reading, although convenient, obviously cannot replace the experiences that paper books have, are, and will always bring directly to readers. Strangely enough, not only has the paper book culture not been "inferior" to e-books, it has also become... more colorful in Vietnam recently. From foreign books, old books, collectible books..., to new bookstores with their own style - it seems that the paper book culture has developed continuously and widely, both in terms of publishing thinking, business models, and reading thinking.

Starting with The Bookworm Hanoi, one of the largest foreign language bookstores in Vietnam with over 30,000 titles. The store was originally located in a small alley on Chau Long Street, The Bookworm has now become one of the largest coffee-book models in the capital. Coming here, you can both immerse yourself in each book and admire objects bearing many cultural and historical imprints of Vietnam as well as Hanoi, preserved by Mr. Hoang Van Truong - the store owner.

Not only in big cities, in Bac Ninh, in the past 3 months, the image of a special bookstore has been continuously shared by the online community. This bookstore with its impressive design has broken all familiar images of a traditional bookstore.

Mr. Tue Phong (pen name) - owner of Tinh Dam Bookstore (Bac Ninh) said: "Tinh Dam's business model is a three-in-one model including books, coffee and community learning clubs, mainly books with more than 3,000 titles in many different fields. When opening the bookstore, my colleagues and I also hoped that this would be a place where young people could learn, refer to multi-dimensional knowledge and exchange directly with each other in a civilized environment."

The Bookworm or Tinh Dam Bookstore model is one of the typical representatives for the innovation of reading paper books. Along with The Bookshelf, Nest Book, Gac Xep Bookstore, or Kiet Bookbox..., these bookstores have in common the fact that they were created by young people with a certain in-depth knowledge of books, have impressive design spaces, and become ideal places to connect people with the same taste and reading style without the need for any technological devices.

Furthermore, the books here are carefully selected, with a large number of foreign books, guaranteed in both quality and form, before reaching readers.

Bestsellers, books on how to get rich, romance novels... are no longer the genres that dominate the reading market like before 2021. Instead, in these "new" bookstores, books that are difficult to read or need to be read "slowly" are the ones that take the throne, including research books, philosophy, classic literature... and art books, with high intellectual value.

On the other hand, some new publishing units also choose a business model by orienting readers to civilized, different publications that are not mixed with the majority of the market. A typical example is Riobook with books that are carefully invested in content, topics, aesthetics and form. Recently, Riobook also launched a thoughtful "reading promotion" program: giving away delicious coffee when buying books.

Just about 3 or 4 years ago, we were still confused when looking at the relationship between paper books and e-books - thinking that the development of one type would lead to the risk of "premature death" of the other. But up to now, perhaps the answer to this relationship has become clear. The existence of paper books and e-books does not depend on each other, but both depend on the level of human intelligence. As long as our need for knowledge continues to increase, society remains civilized, paper books and e-books will continue to develop together.

Therefore, looking at the "strange" development of paper books and e-books in the last 2 years in Vietnam, we can consider it a good sign.

In the 1930s, the early mornings of Hanoians often began with the children's cries: Dong Phap; Trung Bac Tan Van Bao or Gia Dinh Bao... these were the main spiritual foods of Hanoians when there were no electronic media.

Civil servants read newspapers while having breakfast before going to work, wealthy families subscribed to monthly and yearly newspapers and were given special issues and Tet issues. The culture of reading books at that time became a habit of Hanoians, people waited for the exact date of publication to buy the issues and books that still smelled of ink and paper. The books were only trimmed on two edges, but the top edge still kept the fold, so you had to use a knife to cut it open to read, so it was easy to distinguish new books from old books.

On the day the capital was liberated, in the years 1960-1970, there was a book that was first published and printed tens of thousands of copies. Later it was reprinted many times, the total number of copies reached three or four hundred thousand, the most typical beingPrison Diaryof Ho Chi Minh.