New AUC Press Bookshop Opens in Maadi

Bookstores continue to spring up in Cairo:

Last night marked the opening of another bookshop in Maadi, a southern suburb of Cairo.

This AUC bookshop is different from the AUC bookstore off Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo — this one is tucked inside the complex of the Maadi-based Community Services Association (CSA), a private, foreigner-oriented association.

But it also signals that the opening of bookshops in Cairo is not at an end. As physical bookstores close down in the US and UK, they continue to open across the wealthier neighborhoods in Cairo, as well as in communities on the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. Beginning in 2002 with the first Diwan Bookstore in Zamalek, the last decade has seen the opening of a number of Diwans, Shorouk Bookstores, Alefs, two Kotob Khans, Bikya Bookstore, the new AUC Press bookstore in Tahrir, and several others.

Nancy Linthicum and Michele Henjum have attempted to map the movement of Cairo bookstores at cairobookstop.wordpress.com/, which also lists publishing houses and government-owned bookstores as well as advice on finding books in Cairo. Although the website hasn’t been updated in a while (and doesn’t list every small bookstore branch), it remains an important resource.