From their love of reading, some of Da Nang students have been spreading good values to the community.

Vo Thi Thuy Trang spends time reading books every day and cherishes the project "Head 2 Head Reading Club" for everyone to read books together and share good books to each other. Photo: H.T.V

Knowledge train

Dang Ngoc Bao Nhi, a pupil of the grade 12/1 at the Nguyen Van Thoai Senior High School, has recently won the title ‘Ambassador of Reading Culture’ 2023.

Nhi said she chose to introduce the book "Life Is Short - Do Not Sleep Long" written by Robin Sharma at the contest. She unveiled that her purpose was to help readers clearly understand each important milestone in life so that they could be equipped with the necessary knowledge.

Nhi started falling in love with reading books in the school summer holiday of 7^th grade. The first book she read was "I Am Gifted, So Are You!” by Singaporean businessman Adam Khoo. The author shares the "secrets" of his success with readers in simple and clear terms, with exercises to help train others in his techniques.

The book helped the little girl who was not interested in books gradually become inspired to read more books and realise that reading books will improve brain activation, accept positive things and have many diverse perspectives about life's problems.

“Every day, I read books for 2-3 hours. During the school year, I often read before going to bed and after waking up. After 6 years of reading, I realise that each book has different messages and values, and brings countless useful knowledge” Nhi said.

Many of people have bad and negative habits, but after reading the book, they have changed their behavior, thought positively, and found solutions to problems instead of complaining and blaming, she added.

“I think there are many other benefits, but perhaps each age group will have different feelings and lessons" Nhi happily described the benefits of reading.

With her great passion for reading, Nhi has won many awards at national and municipal-level contests. Included are the first prize in the "National Online Book Introduction 2022" contest hosted by the Ministry of Culture and Sports; and the third prize in the online book introduction contest themed "Historical Journey - Following in Footsteps of Heroes" organised by the Da Nang Youth Union.

The abovementioned awards partly help Nhi have more motivation on her journey of carrying knowledge and spreading good things to her classmates and other friends across the country.

Waking up together and read books

As the Reading Culture Ambassador 2022 of the Da Nang University of Science and Technology, Vo Thi Thuy Trang, the third year student majoring in Industrial Management, believes that reading books helps develop knowledge as well as thinking, and even improve skills.

From there, Trang came up with the idea of establishing a reading club on website called "Head 2 Head”, aiming to create an environment for those who love books or want to develop themselves through reading to exchange, discuss and introduce each other to good books.

The club classifies books for districts according to five age groups: elementary school, junior high school, senior high school, students and working people. The goal of each group is to schedule regular meetings.

Accordingly, club members meet and read books together at 5:30 am every Monday without age or region restrictions through the Google meet platform.

This idea had been cherished by Trang for quite a long time until she participated in the contest "Student volunteer project to develop reading culture" co-organised by the municipal Students’ Association, the Da Nang Youth Union, and the Companion Book Club. Trang boldly brought her idea to the contest and won the consolation prize.

She noted, in the modern life, when it comes to reading, it's not only for those who love books but also for those who believe that books are a great source of knowledge. It will be more meaningful when the whole community will practice reading together to form positive habits in the future.

Reporting by HUYNH TUONG VY - Translating by M.DUNG