If you were planning on heading over to the Yangon Book Street this coming weekend or any weekend over the next few months for that matter, we’ve got bad news — the book market will officially be shut down starting this weekend (April 1). Although it’s a temporary closure, it’s also going to be a long one.
Speaking to 7Day, Secretary of the Myanmar Publishers and Distributers Association Myint Tun confirmed that due to the pending rainy season, the market would be closed until around early November.
The book market — officially named the Yangon Books Street — first opened in early January, and has since been in operation every Saturday and Sunday. Its 160 stalls stretch along both sides of Thein Phyu Road from the Secretariat compound to the Central Press building.
“It would be the good if [the market] could stay open year-round. I don’t have a shop that’s always open, so I have to work out at my publishing house as to which books to print and sell. If the market is open, I can set up my stall and gauge customers’ interests,” explained Tin Tun, a publisher at the Sate Kuu Thit publishing house and a Yangon Book Street stall vendor.
The good news is that bookworms don’t have to wait until November to get easy access to a large number of book shops. The Yangon Book Plaza officially opened in Lanmadaw last month, and its wide variety of publishing houses and book shops are open every day from 10am to 9pm. And of course there’s always good ol’ Pansodan Street (although don’t tell that to the YCDC).
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