If you have not yet been to the Amman Book Fair, you must go as soon as possible. The event ends on the 25th, and it is hosted at the Arab Society College on a hilltop opposite the Jordan University campus. Make sure to get cold water with you when you go because it is hot there, and dress lightly. There is a designated parking space outside the premises, and the fair is very organized like the previous one, but on a larger scale.
Ah. How I love books! I had a terrific time this morning when I went to the Amman Book Fair with my sisters, bookish women like me, and we spent whatever was left of our salaries on books, sweet seductive books! There were awesome deals in the UBCC stand, the Ahliyya stand, and MES Publishing stand; the three houses where we splurged the most.
I couldn’t get every book I wanted but I got a handsome portion of what I liked. My selections ranged from Orhan Pamuk to Nawal Sadaawi to Ibsen to Nietzsche to Son’allah Ibrahim. I am going again next week, and then I plan to buy works by Freud, Darwin, Spinoza, Marx, and Edgar Allan Poe, among others.
I was delighted today to realize that I am not starting with nothing in my ongoing library-building endeavors, that I actually have a respectable collection in my library and my mind so I do not have to start from scratch. That I found out by the number of books I snubbed because I have already read. Chasing knowledge is a fool’s occupation, true, but it’s an honorable martyrdom. My problem now is that there is not enough space in my room to hold the results of my bibliophilia.
Addendum: The prices at the three stands I mentioned were the best. At UBCC there are books for one-two-three JDs only, at Ahliyya I bought all of the Arabic titles for half the price written on the cover, and at MES (Al Nothom Al Haditha) I bought all the blue-covers for a little less than the cover price, and in all cases you find books for less than you would if you are going to buy them from regular bookshops. I can’t say the same about other stands though, at Collins books were more expensive than at Prime Mega Store, so you need to have an idea about prices before fishing for your wallet.
Dear Tololy
I’ve been there last night alone, i went around all the Fair practicing my old bad
habit in deciding what to buy:-S
at the end the result was:
- An English book for Paolo Cohilo (hope the name is written correctly)
-Fe madee7 el karaheh (khaled khalefeh)
-Same7ah Kharees -ala a3mal el kamelah
I would make another visit to get Ghaleb Helsa books and the Memories of Geisha too
Nice Ads to the Fair :P
tololy…how are the prices?
Ooooooohhh…..that looks amazing. Wishing I was in Amman now. Btw you bought a good selection- Snow and Two women in one are great! Enjoy :)
Mayyasi, thanks for reminding me that I need to buy stuff by Halasa!
Nas, the prices at the three stands I mentioned were the best. At UBCC there are books for one-two-three JDs only, at Ahliyya I bought all of the Arabic books for half the price written on the cover, and at MES (Al Nothom Al Haditha) I bought all the blue-covers for a little less than the cover price, and in all cases you find books for less than you would if you are going to buy them from regular bookshops. I can’t say the same about other stands though, at Collins things were more expensive than at Prime Mega Store, so you need to have an idea about prices before fishing for your wallet.
Arabista, thank you. I now have so much to enjoy and I am so excited about it :)
This is so much better than the “bookstore” at my college.
Tololy! How’s it hangin? Much to talk about, but first I wanted to make a request.
Can you list the titles of the books you bought at the fair? My bro is coming back to the States from Amman in September, and I want to know if there are any books I should ask him to bring along.
Thanks! :)
Hi Lulu! Sure, here we go:
1- Hedda Gabler and other plays: Henrik Ibsen
2- Thus Spake Zarathustra: Nietzsche
3- Savages: Christopher Hampton
4- Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde with other tales and fables: R. L. Stevenson
5- The Portrait of a Lady: Henry James
6- Our Town and other plays: Thornton Wilder
7- The Last of the Mohicans: J. Fenimore Cooper
8- The Phantom of the Opera: Gaston Leroux
9- The Longman Anthology of World Literature, the 20th century
10-ثلج – أورهان باموك
11- امرأة عند نقطة الصفر: نوال السعداوي
12- ما وراء الحجاب: الجنس كهندسة اجتماعية: فاطمة المرنيسي
13- أمريكانلي: صنع الله ابراهيم
14- امرأتان في امرأة: نوال السعداوي
15- الرواية: نوال السعداوي
16- إنها لندن يا عزيزي: حنان الشيخ
I hope this will help you decide. When I go next week I will list the books I will buy then for extra benefit.
Marx, huh?
*cough*
Vincent, don’t you know what the good book says? “Shun not knowledge whatever shape it assumes, for then thou shalt inherit the Earth” Amen.
[...] Jordan, Tololy is excited about the Amman Book Fair. “I had a terrific time this morning when I went to the [...]
What a wonderful time you had today! Unluckily for me, I won’t be able to visit this Book Fair, although it sounds very tempting. I’m a liitle far away… in Peru.
But anyway, it was great to learn something else about your country, a very long way from mine.
All the best for you and your bookish sisters from another bookish!
Hey Tololy: Amman Book Fair sounds great! I’d love to know the English titles of the Arabic books… and if you discovered any new authors, perhaps you could add them to our site?
[...] title of this post says it all. This is a post that lists the books I bought today from the Amman Book Fair, a list I had promised [...]