By Kaushalendra Singh — SALALAH: March 13 - The third edition of Salalah Book Fair that opened in Dhofar University on Monday is an opportunity for the booklovers who missed the recently concluded Muscat International Book fair. Not less than 25,000 titles in Arabic and English are on display at 63 stalls put up in the Conference Hall of the University. About 31 publishers are taking part in the Book Fair, which is to continue for 10 days till March 22.
The Book fair opened under the auspices of Musallam Ali al Mashani, Member of State Council and Deputy Chairman of the Arab Parliament. A large number of faculty members and students of Dhofar University visited the fair, while many of them chose to work as volunteers and seen as working as bridge between the participating publishers and book stores.
Ali Sadiq, a participant from Egypt as a representative of Dar al Mustaqbal, is happy to see a noticeable a change in reading habit of Omanis. He has been coming to Oman for the last 18 years in connection with his book related business or to take part in book fairs. “I see a change now that in spite of onslaught of new media, there has been increase in book readers in Oman.”
According to Dar al Ulum representative Abdul Rahman, story books are great in demand in Oman from both the genders.
Noor al Waqad’s Faheem Abdullah, however, feels that classics and fictions were great in demand. Along with children books, he has been selling books on Oman and English books and calls organising book fair in Salalah a good move, as the response here is very good. “Those who miss to attend Muscat Book Fair come here and do buy books.
“The titles like Paulo Coelho’s Alchemist, Khalid Hussain’s Kite runner, 1000 splendid sons and The Mountain Echoed, were so much in demand in Muscat Book Fair that they became out of stock and we could bring them to Salalah,” said Abdullah.
Egyptian book store Al Rishala’s representative, Sultan Mohammed, is a first timer in Salalah. He finds that people in Salalah have got good taste for books. “Though today is the first day of the exhibition, the enquiries from the students were interesting. I tell this by my own book fair experience in England, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Oman.”
Rawya Shanfari, a Dhofar University graduate of Finance Studies, has natural inclination for books on literature. So much so that she “wants to become a writer one day.” She likes the huge collection of titles in the book fair that gives her opportunity to learn and buy some books of her choice.
Spread over in 10 days, the book fair is all set to attract good crowd as days and dates have already been mentioned for schools and colleges to visit the fair. Some slots have been dedicated only to families and women only on certain days.
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