Minister of Culture H E Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Hamad Al Thani and Italian Ambassador H E Alessandro Prunas presenting two Italian books translated into Arabic language during the 31st Doha International Book Fair at Doha Exhibition and Convention Center (DECC), yesterday.
The 31st Doha International Book Fair (DIBF) 2022 is witnessing a good turnout of visitors as the fair is a special opportunity for book lovers.
The book fair this year is the largest compared to previous editions in terms of participation of countries and publishing houses as well as availability of many important and rare books. The fair will continue until January 22 at Doha Exhibition & Convention Center (DECC).
The representatives of different publishing houses have expressed their satisfaction with the level of turnout and sales momentum as the average daily sale is about 30 books per booth that may increase depending on the types of books and publishing houses.
The Qatari Forum for Authors on Sunday launched a number of books including ‘Qatar-USA: A Half-Century Journey’ co-authored by prominent Qatari academic, researcher and media personality, Dr. Khalid Al Jaber, who is also former Editor-in-Chief of The Peninsula and former US Ambassador H E Patrick Nicholas Theros. The book, published in Washington DC which contains 10 chapters and 232 pages, tells about the historical growth and development of relations between Qatar and the United States during the past decades.
Dr. Khalid Al Jaber, prominent Qatari academic, researcher and media personality and co-author of the book Qatar-USA: A Half-Century Journey, during the launch of the book during an event held at Doha International Book Fair.
It refers to a comprehensive review of the various fields of cooperation and partnership in the political, defence, economic, educational, cultural and humanitarian aspects between the two friendly countries. The book narrates, in the beginning chapters, the early relations between Qatar and the United States, from the beginning of their formation during the period from 1934 to the launch of the diplomatic mission in Doha in 1972.
One of the important pavilions that received a large number of visitors, especially girls and young people, is the US Embassy pavilion in the exhibition. It showcases many titles including books on history. children’s books, and language learning titles are also available.
‘Sons and Soldiers’, ‘Speak Business English Like an American’, ‘English Made Easy’, ‘8 Steps to Paying Less for College’ are some of the books on sales at the US pavilion. “Look us up at this year’s Doha International Book Fair for a large selection of novels and English Language books! What’s your favorite novel?, the Embassy tweeted.
“The turnout is good from the opening day until now. Every day, we sell from 20 to 30 books. We have a collection of children’s stories and games to develop memory for the kids aged 15 years and below,” said Ahmed, the representative of one of the Syrian pavilions selling children’s books and toys.
Ahmed also said that families give great priority to children’s reading and buys books for them and that’s a good thing.
Commenting on children books at the Fair, he noted: “Perhaps children’s books receive more visitors compared to other books, as I noticed, followed by novels and others, in addition to religious books.”
For his part, another representative from one of Egyptian Pavilion commented: “Novels are in great demand, and their price starts from QR60... sales are good so far.”
Also Ambassador of Turkey to Qatar, H E Dr. Mustafa Goksu, thanked the Ministry of Culture for organizing this exhibition despite COVID-19 pandemic. “I congratulate everyone who contributed to the success of this exhibition. It brought together all lovers of reading and books in one place.”
The current edition of the exhibition is characterised by wide participation from various state institutions, through the establishment of reading workshops and various cultural events, in addition to the participation of many cultural institutions that work to enrich the intellectual and cultural content of the exhibition, which embraces all segments of society of different ages and languages.
The exhibition is witnessing a high turnout of visitors from the Gulf, Arabs and foreigners.
With the participation of 37 countries and 430 publishing houses, the event is being organized by Ministry of Culture represented by Qatar Cultural and Heritage Events Center, under the slogan ‘Knowledge is Light’.
