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I remember back in the day when the book fair used to be held in the huge striped red-and-white Expo tent a short way from the beach, but a couple of years ago the Expo tent was replaced with a more permanent structure that holds book fairs, jewelry exhibitions among other events. When I learnt that the friendly striped tent was going to be put down, so to speak, I was devastated. I loved that tent and the fact that I could get lost in the world of books in it. No cold, concrete building for me, I thought, but boy was I wrong. Let me walk you through the fair, and if you’re a first timer, hop on and be prepared to spend hours in this book Mecca . The Sharjah International Book Fair is held at the Sharjah Expo Center, and when you enter, one of the first things you are going to see is the trolley man. Ladies and Gentlemen, the trolley man is going to be your best friend. Books are unfortunately heavy and renting a trolley would be the smartest choice you could make – you really don’t want to be weighed down by books mid way through your book shopping spree. The main entrance is filled with little coffee shops, photo exhibitions and the Sharjah TV stand but on both sides of the entrance four huge halls brimming with book booths await you. Some main booths that you should pay a visit are: The Qalam/Kalima booth (Hall 2, booth 81-82): A wonderful initiative undertaken by the Abu Dhabi Culture and Heritage Authority, this project sponsors budding Emarati authors by taking in their manuscripts and publishing it for them at no cost whatsoever. They also translate major foreign works into Arabic. The people working in the booth told me that earlier this year they participated in the Frankfurt International Book Fair and get this: they sold books by Emarati authors translated into German. So, if you’re a budding author – or a translator – you might want to look into this. Here are the HYPERLINK "http://www.adach.ae/ar/portal/featured.project/qualam.aspx" Qalam and HYPERLINK "http://kalima.ae/new/index_ar.php" Kalima sites for more. The Kalimat booth: A Sharjah based publishing company that specializes in providing children’s books in Arabic. It is pretty hard to find well published and illustrated books in Arabic for kids these days, and if you find yourself in such a quandary, you know where to find them. Here is their site for additional HYPERLINK "http://www.kalimat.ae/" info. The Sharjah Department of Culture and Information booth (Hall 2, booth 125-130): You’ll find various books, fiction and non fiction, which won the Sharjah Creativity Award on sale there. It’s a great stop for loading up on some talented regional authors, so don’t forget to step in their booth. Dar Al Saqi Publishers – Lebanon (Hall 1, booth 181-183): A wonderful stop for the latest in Arabic fiction and you’ll find the salespeople very knowledgeable and eager to help you find books that are within any genre you like. Kasha Bookstore – Jordan (Hall 3, booth 414-416): This is the stop for hard to find English fiction. You’ll find several lesser known titles of famous authors, and if there’s something you want that they don’t have in stock, you can easily order through their salespeople or website. Al Waraq Publishers – London (Hall 2, booth 77-78): This publisher specializes in history books and travel books about Arabia with a great selection of travel diaries, autobiographies and picture books about the countries in the Gulf and the Middle East in general. These are but to name a few of the greatest stops of the book fair. There are several other booths from the UAE like the Mohammed Bin Rashid Foundation, The Sheikh Khalifa Education Award booth, as well as numerous participants from the GCC & Arab countries and various International publishers and participants. A multitude of events also occur right there, like talks with authors and workshops for adults and children. Need a book and don’t know where to look? All you need to is to go to the closest “Are you Lost?” booth located at the entrance of each hall and give them the title/publisher. The friendly youngsters working there would only be too happy to look up any titles you have and print you a map of how to get to the closest booth. Event Details: Place & Date: Sharjah Expo Center, from November 11th to the 21st. Map is available at their site and entrance is Free. Timings: 10 AM to 10 PM. For more info, visit their site. Suggestions: It can get a bit too crowded during school visits timings, so if you’re not a fan of being lost in a maze of kids try going after 2 PM. Be sure not to miss it. Happy browsing and reading! |
