Outstanding spots to visit at Cairo Book Fair

CAIRO – 30 January 2018: Going to pay a visit to the Cairo International Book Fair’s 49th edition?

Egypt Today presents to you some outstanding spots that you shouldn’t miss during your visit to the book fair.

The Ministry of Culture participates this year in the book fair through a noticeable initiative – a booth for the National Center for Translation.

“This center is considered to be a cultural bridge that connects between the East and the West,” Tamer Mostafa, sales director at the National Center for Translation, told Egypt Today. Mostafa added that the center translates books from 33 languages to Arabic and is participating in the book fair with 2,200 different editions.

As an attempt to encourage university students to read more and also to facilitate their academic research processes, the center offers a 55% discount on all the center’s editions for students, while it offers a 30% discount on all editions for the public. The center also exclusively applies 70% off on all the editions published five years ago.

Regarding the most noteworthy translated editions this year, Mostafa mentioned that there is a considerable amount of books about Sufism, especially Sufi poetry, sociology and the research sciences.

If you’re willing to read a wide-ranging set of books this year but you don’t know from where to start, then you should pass by “3aseer El Kotob” (Books’ Juice). At the entrance is the slogan “Spread Your Wings and Get Developed”, which accurately describes their enterprise.

3aseer El Kotob is a cultural movement aiming to help youth build up their own well-structured knowledge,” Ahmed Farouk, one of the founders, told Egypt Today.

Farouk added that this movement is always looking forward to guiding youth towards a way where they can reach the most valuable and enlightening books in various fields. The founders are constantly working on their vision through three major ways: participating in local and international book fairs, their 3aseer El Kotob bookstore in Mansoura and their well-known publishing house with the same name.

According to Farouk, this is their fourth year to be present at the Cairo International Book Fair. They are uniquely present at the book fair with 20% off on all their displayed books. In addition, there is an extensive set of new editions, such as “Al Eskendareya Fi Ghayma”(Alexandria in a Cloud) by prominent Egyptian writer Ibrahim Abdel Meguid and “El Seera Mostamera” (The Biography is Constant) by Jordanian writer Ahmed Khairy El Emary, among others.

3aseer El Kotob also offers a special service supporting their efforts to enlighten the upcoming generation, which is a specialized messenger, “3aseer Bot”, which presents book reviews and other information that the reader requests.

You will notice an incredibly effective phenomenon rocking the book fair this year, where salesmen are offering readers sufficient recommendations and book reviews. This phenomenon was obvious at “Dar Dawn” for publishing and distribution, which is also distinguished by its remarkable offers on discounts for multiple books purchased by the same author.

Salwa Saeed, salesman at “Masr El Arabya” for publishing and distribution personified this phenomenon by telling Egypt Today about “Juttah Haym”, the first book by Maltese writer Emmanuel Mifsud to be translated to the Arabic language. Salwa also mentioned that a seminar in which Mifsud will discuss this book will be held at the book fair on Friday, February 2 at “Al Mahrousa” hall.

As an initiative to emphasize their beliefs concerning the importance of reading, “Al Diwan” bookstore destined two partitions for English youth bestsellers with a fixed price of LE 90 ($5). They also flourished with a 50% discount on some prominent Arabic editions in philosophy, politics, religion, and other fields.

With its limited editions of signed Naguib Mahfouz books, AUC Press bookstore has successfully thrived. It has a magnificent collection for Egyptian reads about many of Egypt’s historical periods.


Signing of late prominent Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz. Photo by Mira Maged

A large collection of literary works by top Arab novelists, such as Radwa Ashour, Alaa Al Aswany, Youssef Zidan and others, is available at “Dar El Shrouk”. It also gathered various books with low prices of LE 10-20, in addition to a 20% discount on all the other editions.

Many booths provide creative educational and entertaining reads for kids, such as “Al Mostakbal” (The Future) and “El Bashayer” (The Good News), among others.

It is worth mentioning that Dr. Haitham El-Haj Ali, chairman of the Egyptian General Book Organization, said that the number of visitors to the Cairo International Book Fair in its 49th edition reached 650,000 in the first two days. The number reached 300,000 on the first day of the exhibition. On Sunday, the number of visitors reached 350,000. The organization has achieved a high sales rate so far, up about 16% from last year.