We just came back from the international book fair, and man are we tired, we’re just exhausted.
It was full of people as usual, although more bearable than the first days of its opening.
There were basically the same countries that come with their books every year, but I did notice a little change in the type of books that were being exhibited. Religious books are still dominating, although less then last year, and the two new types of books that are coming strongly into center stage are children’s books and books about health, beauty and macrobiotics.
The thing that brings me down though is that most of the Arab books are either old re-issued books or translated ones. It’s as if there are little to no new Arab writers nowadays, which is a big shame.
Each year I keep hoping it will change and that there will be some kind of revolution in Arab literature, but it hasn’t happened yet. Still I remain optimistic that the day will come.
I came out of the whole thing with two novels: Pattern Recognition and Secret Smile. They seem like 2 good reads.
I’ll let you know when I get around to reading them after finishing the book I already have in hand.
All in all, it was great visiting the book fair, as always. It’s good to see that people still read and that they’re encouraging their children to read.
some statistics taken from “L’expansion”, october 2004 issue:
The number of books translated each year to arabic is 330; Greece translates 5 times more books to greek than all arabic countries together to arabic.
About 10000 books were translated to arabic since the IXth century. It’s the number of books translated each year to spanish.
18% of arabic litterature deals whith religion.
yep, sadly enough, that’s the truth. Once upon the time, we were leading the world. We are not anymore. Why? these statistics talk for the situation. We are so behind. People are watching tv more than ever. All they think about is getting a good meal, watching soccer/football on tv, and listening to crap new arabic music. A teen reading a book in the train in tunisia will be picked on by other teens, laughing at him, while it should be the opposite. At least blogs are making people read others, write ,and as an extention read books and become more educated. We need a Renaissance, after the stagnation we are in.