UAE | Heritage and Culture

Used Book Festival is a success story for avid readers in Dubai

More than 15,000 books were sold on the first day of the Used Book Festival held under the patronage of Shaikh Mayed Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

  • By Siham Al Najami, Staff Reporter
  • Published: 20:39 February 25, 2008
  • Gulf News

  • Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News
  • People during the Used Book Festival being held at the Science and Culture forum at Al Mamzar area in Dubai.
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Dubai: More than 15,000 books were sold on the first day of the Used Book Festival held under the patronage of Shaikh Mayed Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

The festival which will continue till the first of March, was hosted by the Science and Culture Forum, and has been organised by the Ministry of Education, Juma Al Majid Heritage and Culture Centre, Dubai Land and Properties Department.

The festival engaged the public in the process of reviving the culture of used books since the books were donated by organisations, schools and individuals reaching over 110,000 and the count was still on, as of the time these words are published. In less than a month they were able to collect more than 80,000 books, said one of the organisers.

However, some of the donated books were not displayed as they had religiously sensitive content, mainly to Christianity and Islam, he said.

The event was composed of 33 different sections with books organised according to subjects such as history and geography, Islamic sciences, technology and pure sciences, school books, kids' books, social sciences and humanities as well as medical and linguistic books in both Arabic and English with its revenues going entirely to the Beit Al Khair Society.

"Around 350 private and public schools across the UAE donated to this festival. We even dedicated sections solely for schools donating more than 1,000 books. This activity brought a lot of awareness to the school children and involved them in an activity for the betterment of society as well as to encourage them to read more," said Dr Mohammad Yasir Amro, Director General of the Juma Al Majid Heritage and Culture Centre and Head of the Organising committee of the event.

In circulation

In just an hour, the large tent was fully occupied with visitors, mainly school students from across the emirates. The first day of the event saw the registration of more than 2,000 visitors, said Dr Amro.

"It's an amazing event that has a wide variety of very reasonable and affordable books. It helps people with very low incomes and also the vast amount of knowledge in these books is circulated rather than collecting dust on the shelves," said Reem Abdullah, a student from Dubai.

Another knowledge seeker with an interest in books on the Gulf region said, "This event is an ocean of knowledge of books on the history of the Gulf and the UAE. These books are probably out of print now. I found books that I couldn't find somewhere else," said Juma Al Dumarqi.

Many of the academic and scientific books cost more than Dh100, but are sold for not more than Dh 10, which is a strong incentive for the visitors to collect a wide array of beneficial books.

Do you think there are enough second hand bookstores in the UAE? Where do you buy old and rare books? What do you do with old and unwanted books? Let us know by filling in the form below.

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