The Summer I turned bookworm

Okay, the title is a lie. I’m not turning into a bookworm this summer, I have always been a bookworm.

Since I was young, I have been trained by my grandpa to read as much as possible, so I love books, including both paper books and ebooks. I used to have a mountain made of books at my grandparents’ house, and I could only bring half of them with me when I moved to my new house. I needed two boxes to carry all of them because it was too heavy, and, fun fact, I only need one suitcase to pack my whole closet.

As a bookworm, I usually spend my summer holiday on long novel series (“The Trials of Apollo” (“Percy Jackson”, actually, but I don’t have them in this bookcase) - Rick Riordan), or some super difficult books (“Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” - Yuval Noah Harari). I read almost every genre, but my favorite ones are thrillers, horror, mystery and science, especially if they are related to medicine, my major in university. I read manga too, but only in online form because my parents don’t allow me to collect them.

Because I was trained, my reading speed is a bit faster than normal people - if I don’t have any deadline, I can read a 600-page book in about a day (yes, I’m flexing) - so I run out of books very fast. I buy new books whenever I have time to go to the bookstore, or when the online stores have discounts. As a result, the amount of money in my account plummeted, and on the opposite side, the amount of data used in my Ipad’s storage increased even faster than the antigenic drift’s rate of Influenza. So, I don’t have any choice but to stop buying new books.

During the academic semester, it doesn’t affect me much, because the curriculums of my professors and the paperwork of my club are enough to “entertain” me. However, when summer comes, the hunger for books appears again, forcing me to go to the bookstore and buy new books…at least, until I realize that I already have an available huge, diverse, and free bookstore right under my nose.

I think you can already guess what it is, but if you don’t, then welcome to the library of VinUniversity.

(Click here to see our library virtually: https://www.thinglink.com/scene/1620740334667431938)

In VinUni, there are 3 places I often go to, which are the amphitheater (for my college is C and F buildings), canteen, and library. In other words, except when I go to class and eat, 90% of my time in VinUni is spent in the library. I’m studying, working, reading, even sleeping there. Obviously, I can do those tasks at home, but the library has free air conditioning, so why not? ^^

As you can see in the image above, that’s where I always sit when coming to the library. Why? Because it’s one of the rare places with a power outlet close enough to charge my Ipad.

For anyone thinking “such an idiot reason”, I’m glad that you guys don’t have to live my life. :)

Putting aside the work, let me introduce you to the book storage of VinUni. They have almost every genre you need, from textbooks to novels, in both English and Vietnamese. All are sorted by category, then divided into separate zones with specific codes. That’s why we are not allowed to put them back on our own, but have to put them on a rack for the librarians. I think it is a good decision, since I had experience spending half an hour rearranging a huge book mess in my secondary school’s library, and believe me, it-was-not-fun-at-all.

However, although they are arranged carefully, it’s still quite difficult to find books in VinUni’s library because of the number. So, to keep you some time, I will give you a small tip:

1. Go to https://library.vinuni.edu.vn/
2. Search for the book you need. You can type in the searching tool its name, its author, or its keywords.
3. Click on the book.
4. You can access it online. But, if it doesn’t have online version, or you prefer to read it offline, then look for this code:

5.   Use the code to find your book. For example, if you want to find this book, go to the QS bookcase, search for the 17 one, and tadaa.

Return to my journey. With the large and diverse sources of books, VinUni’s library is like a paradise for the bookworms, especially the bookworms who study medicine (like me). Only for textbooks, the College of Health Science already requires 4 large bookcases to store, however, none of them is not worth reading. I usually use “Forensic Medicine” (chief author: Associate professor, Dr. Dinh Gia Duc), “Human Anatomy” of Hanoi Medical University, and “Atlas of Human Anatomy” (Netter, Frank H. et al.) to study, and read some kinds of novels or not-so-difficult books like “Sherlock Holmes” and “History of Vietnamese traditional clothes” for entertainment. The library also has books of other majors, including the other three Colleges, and the majors not yet taught in VinUni. They take less space, just more than 1 bookcase, but still thoroughly. I remembered seeing books for Calculus, Business, Wine, Sports, and many more there. One of them, also my favorite one, is:

Even right now, when writing this post, I also sit in VinUni’s library, continue to read books. My target this summer is finishing all the books that give me interest in our library. How about you? What are you planning for summer? Share with us in the comment, or, if you are also a bookworm, let’s meet in VinUni’s library and “eat” books together!

Sincerely,

VinUnians