SHARJAH // Bookworms were out in force to find great secondhand reads at a used book fair in Al Nakheel Park on Khalid Corniche.
The sixth edition of the Sharjah used book fair kicked off on Tuesday and drew avid readers of all ages, some having travelled all the way from Abu Dhabi.
Book collector Jummaa Salem Al Darmaki was happy to make the journey down the E11 for the chance to discover hard to find hardbacks.
“One can find really good and rare titles here, special editions and out-of-print titles,” said the head of museums and collections at Emirates Heritage Club.
“So far, I’ve picked up 50 titles and I’m not finished yet,” said Mr Al Darmaki, adding that fairs such as this are a good way of keeping books in circulation.
“People donating books to fairs is good, it will encourage them to donate them again after they’ve finishing reading.”
Al Qasimiya resident Maram Kojan was sifting through the books searching for novels.
“I finished buying a large amount of children’s stories,and now it’s time to pick some titles for myself,” said the 29-year-old Syrian. The mother of two said the price tag of no more than Dh20 meant the books were within most people’s budget.
“I have two children, age five and six. Buying a lot of stories for them here will help keep them interested, and won’t affect our household budget.”
More than 250,000 titles will be available during the five-day event, which supports President Sheikh Khalifa’s Year of Reading initiative.
Osama Mardini, organiser of the event from Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services, said book donations were still coming in. “Earlier today, Dubai Police donated 5,000 titles to this year’s fair.”
Most of the books are priced between Dh3 and Dh20, with topics varying from fiction, religion, science, history and geography, as well as children’s titles in Arabic and English.
School pupils were entertained with Egyptian folk dances as they picked through the books on display.
tzriqat@thenational.ae