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For the youth of 20th century Hanoi, an excursion to Hoan Kiem Lake would involve a visit to the General Department Store, the forerunner of today’s Trang Tien Plaza, savoring  Trang Tien ice cream , and exploring Dinh Le’s renowned “book street”. Despite the passage of generations and the emergence of numerous other book hubs across the capital, the title “Book Street” remains synonymous with the stretch of  Dinh Le Street .  Dinh Le Street is a beloved destination for book enthusiasts in Hanoi. Photo: Hai Yen The Genesis of Hanoi’s First “Book Street”  Dinh Le Street connects Ngo Quyen Street to Dinh Tien Hoang Street. In the 1990s, it was colloquially known as “Do De Street” due to its notoriety as a trading hub for US dollars (“Do” for dollars) and Deutschmarks (“De” for Deutschmarks), highly valued currencies at the time. Prior to the 1990s, Hanoi’s two prominent state-owned bookstores, the National Literature Bookstore and the Foreign Li...