Sharjah: The 33rd edition of the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF), which concluded on November 15, was marked as the most successful in three decades with more than 1.4 million visitors and $48.5 million (Dh178.15 million) in sales revenue.
With a 45 per cent increase in the number of visitors over last year, the book fair saw 46,000 students from 350 schools on November 11 alone.
The international event, which took place from November 5-15 was held at the Expo Centre Sharjah.
“This event will continue to be a platform for the exchange of literary thoughts and energy for people from all over the world. Next year will be even bigger, we are already planning for it,” said Ahmad Bin Rakkad Al Ameri, Director of SIBF.
The book fair’s official hashtag has also seen a record-breaking number of 613 million viewers on Twitter in both English and Arabic during the 11- day event.
According to “HashTracking.com” website, SIBF tweets and posts have exceeded all expectations, with the total number of 17,500 tweets in Arabic and 6,000 tweets in English.
Higher numbers
This year, 1,256 publishing houses from 59 countries participated at the book fair with seminars, discussions and open forums led by renowned international, Arab, and local figures such as author Dan Brown, Egyptian actor Adel Imam, and former Pakistan Ambassador to the USA, Hussain Haqqani.
One of the fair’s biggest highlights was Dan Brown’s session, in which he gave his readers and fans an insight into his world of writing and codes. In the presence of His Highness Dr Shaikh Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, the author reflected on religion and science and highlighted ideas and concepts in the plots of his books.
Another prominent figure that attracted a lot of attention at the fair was Adel Imam’s session where he revealed plans to make a movie tackling the Egyptian revolution period using comedy.
A number of Indian authors were also present at the fair, including Amish Tripathi, ‘India’s first literary pop star’ with over 2 million books sold and translated into 14 languages; fiction writer Amitav Ghosh, and Shashi Tharoor, former Indian Minister of State for External Affairs and UN peacekeeper.
Food lovers also enjoyed watching dishes prepared by chefs from all parts of the world who shared their tips and tricks and signed their latest books.
This year, the fair also witnessed 12 new participating countries — Iceland, Finland, Mexico, Croatia, Latvia, Slovenia, Hungary, New Zealand, Malaysia, Malta, Lithuania and Nigeria.
Coinciding with the celebration of Sharjah as Capital of Islamic Culture, the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ISESCO) was the guest of honour at this year’s book fair.
