Kuwait Times

Published Date: November 07, 2007
By Nawara Fattahova, Staff Writer

KUWAIT: The National Council for Culture, Arts, and Letters (NCCAL) held a press conference at its headquarters to talk about the 32nd Kuwait Book Fair that will be held from Nov 13 to 23 at the Kuwait International Fairgrounds in Mishref. The book fair will be held under the auspices of Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah and will be launched on Nov 13 at 10 am by the Minister of Information Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Hamad Al-Sabah.

The Kuwait Book Fair is the third largest book fair in the Middle East after Cairo and Beirut. "The Kuwait Book Fair is important for people who are into culture and it is highly attended by Arab writers and publishers. It really is an important event for Kuwait," said Bader Al-Rifai, Secretary General of the NCCAL, during the conference. The Kuwait Book Fair is more than an exhibition as it includes other cultural events as well. "It's a cultural festival which is anticipated by intellectuals and readers
every year. Besides being a huge place for exhibiting and selling books, it is also a social gathering place for likeminded individuals," Al-Rifai added.

There will be 538 publishing houses from 23 countries participating in the fair. 477 publishing houses are privately owned while 55 are publicly owned and six publishing houses are owned by international and Arab organizations. "278 of these publishing houses are participating directly, while 260 of them are participating on behalf of other publishers. The fair will contain 11,891 book titles including 9,995 Arabic books, 713 books in other languages, 837 Arabic books for kids, and 364 books for kids in ot
her languages," noted Sa'ad Al-Mutairi, the fair's general director.

This year, there will also be additional activities at the book fair. There will be three symposiums held about the media and about books in Kuwait. In addition to this, an evening devoted to poem recitals will be held. The fair will have an art exhibition portraying some art work done by 20 female Kuwaiti artists from different schools and it will also include an Arabic heritage exhibition of some original calligraphy and rare copies of the Holy Qur'an.

Al-Rifai pointed out that they want more children to come to the fair and become interested in reading. "Hall number seven will be totally devoted to kid's books. Moreover, there will be a special hall for kids to practice their hobbies such as watching movies, using computers, drawing, and other things," Al-Rifai further said.

Different sections were divided in different halls. A special section was reserved for the publications of the NCCAL and hall number six was reserved for electronic publishers, as the demand of this type of publishing has increased in recent years. Furthermore, there will also be a diwaniya for publishers where they can gather and discus different subjects.

A new service was added to this year's fair as the organizers of the event have provided a wireless internet connection which covers the entire fair. Aside from this, visitors will be able to buy books and other merchandise via knet and their credit cards. The fair's hours are from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm and then from 4:30 pm to 9:30 pm during the weekdays and it will be opened from 4:00 pm to 10:00 pm on Fridays.