Call to boost readership among young Omanis
Salalah set to become a good destination for booksellers
A section of publishers from Arab world hailed Salalah as a good destination to sell books due to reading habit of Dhofaris in general. The publishers and shop owners appreciated the readers’ choice, as they kept abreast of the latest trend and were equally interested in books on history and culture.
“They seem to be good collectors of books as well, as I got orders for a good number of books, mainly novels and culture. They have an urge to know about the world and look for authentic works even after scores of information available on the Internet. It shows their genuineness in reading and urge for right knowledge,” said Asharaf Sophy, a publisher from Yemen now shifted to Egypt.
Asharaf Sobhy, an Egyptian, had to shift all the books to Egypt, post-war. He actively takes part in book fairs as and when he comes to know about them. After taking part in Muscat International Book Fair, he came to Salalah to take part in Salalah Book Fair and now taking part in Al Nahdha Book Fair with more than 2,000 titles.
He insisted that the rich people in Salalah should protect the habit of people’s reading by setting up libraries and organising literary events where books can be reviewed and interaction with the young writers can be established.
“All kind of books,” he said when asked about the choice of readers in Salalah. “Novels are more in demand. The youth have natural inclination towards novels, while there is good demand for books on short stories, history and culture is popular among middle aged and senior readers… enquiries are there for standard motivational books,” he said.
“The books of Ahlam Mosteghanemi and Malek Bennabi from Algeria; Khawla Hamzi from Morocco; Waleed Kaseb and Dawood al Obaidi from Saudi Arabia and Amer al Qubaisi from Iraq; are good in demand. Among Omani writers I sold many books of Fadhil al Rubai and Said al Nomani,” said Sobhy.
Faheem Abdullah, who took part in Salalah Book Fair representing his Muscat-based book shop Noor al Waqad claimed to have good demand for all sorts of fictions, children books and books on English, “there has been good demand for books on ‘how to learn English’ and ‘how to learn Arabic’ from Arabic speaking people and expatriates.”
There has been good demand for books on photography and editing from young Omanis, according to Abdullah, who himself is a keen photographer with skills in film and television production. He finds Omanis very good in photography and related skills like editing, designing and video shooting. “Hence it justifies demand for such books,” he said.
He was happy to see demand for Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist and Khaled Hosseini’s Kite Runner, 1000 Splendid Sons, And the Mountains Echoed.
The demand for these books was both in original and translated versions, while most of the individual buyers were women and college girls.