Two days ago, I visited for the first time the Thu Vien Quoc Gia (National Library). On the map, it is a tiny blue dot that sits on the corner of Le Thanh Ton street and Nguyen Trung Truc, very near Cho Saigon. I walked through the vendors and shops and all the xe om guys, expecting to see a large edifice jutting into the sky, and trying to look as inconspicuous as possible--a hard feat for someone who looks so obviously foreign. Several of the xe om drivers spoke to me in English, thinking I was some non-Vietnamese speaking foreigner. There was little point in pretending I was a local, so I asked a xich lo guy where the library was, and he gave me directions, half-expecting, I think to get something in return. I feel a bit brusque for not offering him a coin, but I needed it for the ride home. // The library is in itself an unimpressive structure. Squat and wide, the white stone building sits rather heavily on the corner of the street. It doesn't even appear imposing, as I imagine a library would be. The main gate was locked, as it has been for a while now, I think, and I noticed that people only used the side door, as if they had to surreptitiously slip in and out of the library. Inside the gate, but in the front foyer of the library, is a garden lined with benches. I noticed that many students sat outside to read and study, without caring about the heat and humidity. But it was no better inside b/c the un-conditioned air was stifling. There is only one main building, and you have to go into Reading Rooms that are separated by subjects. Materials on Politics, Economics, Sciences, and History, among others, all fit into one room. There were so few books, and I was amazed all these histories could fit into one room along with all the other subjects. In the second reading room, was Culture, Education, Literature, and others. I didn't see any other rooms, and was shocked so see that these rooms were not even lined with bookcases. There were more reading tables and chairs than there were bookcases. // Seeing this made me remember all the other books that I saw in the libraries in Wilmington and in Berkeley. There were more books in those libraries than there were in this one, this which is the only library I could see on the map of a city of 8 million people. How precious it seems to have books. Now, more than ever, I miss the books on my bookshelves, b/c they are nowhere to be found here. // Reading here is as precious as anything. Literally, here, public library does not mean the same thing. I don't remember having to pay for a library card in Berkeley or in Texas or in NC. But here, you have to pay for a Reading card and a Lending card. You must have the Reading card in order to enter the library and the Reading rooms. And you must have a Lending card to borrow the books. Essentially then, I pay to peruse those books. It's money for knowledge. Then again, if I look at it another way, it means that no common citizen "owns" these books. That is, in this library, intellectual property can't be purchased by the private citizen, or rather, it is parceled out a little piece at a time. I miss my books! Books that I can hold in my hand when I'm at home; books I can dialogue with and write on inside; books I can lug around in my book bag for ages and not have to pay a fine; books I can read in English. The last time I looked up every other word while reading a book was in my French IV class, reading Les Miserables. La langue d'art est tres difficile! C'est la vie!