How did you conceive the idea for Book Hero — a bookshop without any staff run entirely on public trust?
Book Hero was born from a passion for promoting reading at an affordable cost. The store was co-founded with Mohammed Al Qubaisi, an Emirati book lover, in 2016 in Sports City. Interestingly when we first opened we had a few staff members. But as we were not making any profits and were unable to manage their salaries we decided to leave the store unmanned. Customers can deposit money after buying the books in a trust box. Each book carries either a yellow or a green sticker indicating the price as Dh10 or Dh20. I just go once a day to replace the books and collect the money.
Your novel bookstore has reiterated the fact that Dubai is a safe place — did you intend to spread any such message?
I always believed that people in Dubai are honest and that it’s a very safe city, and now Book Hero proves it too. We totally trust our customers. In fact they go out of their way to pay us back for the books they buy. A few days ago I was at the store and a man walked in with a Dh100 note and said this is for the five books I bought yesterday. Sometimes people come to me and say, ‘I have taken a few books and I will pay you tomorrow’. I believe them and they know that I do.
Any unique or memorable responses from your readers that you would like to share with us?
There have been so many. A few months ago a young housemaid walked up to me with three books and 10 dirhams. She wanted me to pick the best book for her to read. I can never forget her sparkling eyes, hungry to read a book. Then once at 2am a security guard came to me and said that he bought a book from here a few days ago and that after reading it he wants to work in the sales sector. It was a reminder that a book can change the entire course of someone’s personal and professional life.
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An Emirati family with five kids drove for many hours to come to Book Hero and bought books worth Dh500. A 95-year-old man who lives in Dubai Marina is one of our loyal customers. I love to watch him read, he is so engrossed in his book, completely oblivious of his surroundings. We are able to cater to a wide range of readers simply because of the low cost, the books’ condition and the huge variety of genres we stock.
Where are your locations? And what kind of books can we find in Book Hero?
We have currently seven permanent locations — Sports City next to Fit Republik, Dubai Marina next to the Cinemas, Oasis Mall basement, Mudon Al Salam Tower Centre, Shorooq Community Center, Al Khail Gate community centre and Bay Avenue. The one in Marina has part-time staff and at Oasis Centre we have one permanent staff member to facilitate textbook swaps. All other stores are unmanned.
We have more than 25,000 titles in our shops. Around 85 per cent of our books are in English and the rest include a mix of French, Arabic, Russian, Chinese and Spanish. We also have a mobile book truck that goes to different communities — such as Tuesdays to Thursdays in Motor City outside Spinneys, every Friday to Zabeel Park, every Saturday Al Barsha Pond Park and soon we will be part of Emaar community halls.
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In future I hope to get sponsorship for a Tata bus that can work as a mobile bookshop to cater to book lovers in the interiors of the UAE. We also go to corporate offices as part of our Books and Breaks venture wherein employees can buy books that we bring to their offices. Most of our books are bought from expats who are in transit and we are also open to book donations.
Why the name Book Hero?
The idea behind the name is based on the fact that the profit we make from our book sales support our other projects — in that sense books are our heroes.
What are these projects that Book Hero supports?
My other passion is animal welfare. Book Hero was born from a series of events that took place while looking for animal welfare projects. So a part of our profit goes into stray animal sterilisation campaigns as part of The Animal Project. We also have conducted several corporate social responsibility initiatives. These include shipping 1,001 books to a refugee camp in Spain, to Dubai Central Jail, to security firms, to an NGO in Kenya and to Mauritania. At the basement of Oasis Mall we have the educational book swap project to help recycle books’ life span and give low-cost textbook access to large families.
What is your personal association with books? Are you an avid reader?
I grew up in The Canary Islands in Spain in a family that loved reading, travelling and the arts. Being around books has had a deep enriching impact on me. I feel something really magical can happen when you open a book and even a mere paragraph can change your life.
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In a book shop I feel privileged to be in the company of so many silent geniuses, simply waiting patiently to be picked up from the shelves. I am an avid reader of history and I love reading books on authors. My favourite authors are Julio Cortazar, Mario Vargas Llosa, Gulzar and Javed Akhtar.
Do you feel in the age of visual medium books are losing readers to YouTube and social media?
I felt that there can never be anything that can replace the pleasure of leafing through the pages of a book and the feel of paper between the fingers. My experience with readers of Book Hero has further strengthened my view. During pop-up shops in the mall and at our other book events I get an overwhelming response. On most days at our Sports City store you will find kids sprawled on the rug with piles of books.
