So on November 8th, 2007, I went with my family to visit the book fair called “A Library for Every Home.” This was a project initiated by the Jordanian Ministry of Culture to encourage people to read and build their own libraries by providing titles at super-low prices. I saluted the idea, despite reading several articles in daily newspapers dismissing the potential success of the project, attributing Jordanians’ loathing for the book to genetics more than finances. I personally thought the initiative was good.

That said, I went to the fair hoping that it will be somewhat like last year’s book fair which I enjoyed and considerably funded by purchasing a ton of books. I was sorely mistaken, though. I found out that there were only 50 titles on sale, which is something I can understand since the ministry has taken it upon itself to print these books and probably does not have enough funds to print more than 50 titles. But what I could not understand was the absence of 45 of these 50 titles when I went to the event!

I went at around 12 PM, which was an hour after the queen inaugurated the fair. How could the books evaporate in an hour’s time?, I asked myself. The tables were empty except for a meager, pathetic group of prints of a book on pregnancy and another on mathematics. Some children’s books survived, a novel by Sameeha Khrais, one by Naguib Mahfouz. But that was it.

Where had the remaining 45 titles gone in less than an hour?
Why would the Ministry of Culture promise a library for every home when it cannot organize an event to match the title?

I went home, disappointed and angry at the waste of my time. The next day, November 9th, my parents went again to the Royal Cultural Center at around 9 AM. They were hoping to find the tables stacked with books, the organizers friendlier, the people happier. What they found was the exact opposite. Apparently, not even at 9 AM in the morning can one hope for a decent book fair organized by the Ministry of Culture.

It turned out that some of the employees working in the fair had been selling books by the carton! I mean, honestly, would a regular human being buy 24 copies of a book on pregnancy?! Didn’t they think that, perhaps, only a slight possibility, any such person might be a merchant of some sort and want to resell these books at a higher price?

A Library for Every Bookstore, that’s a more proper name for the book fair, I say.

While there, my parents talked to a number of other equally disappointed citizens about the mess they were visiting. They also talked to some employees who urged them to contact the Ministry of Culture and report the absurdities happening at the fair. Hmm, if the visitors and the employees were complaining, who is to blame? I wonder.