“Temporary” Minister of Culture Zahi Hawass (yes, Zahi Hawass) has said that the 43rd Cairo International Book Fair may yet run in May, following fairs in Riyadh, Muscat, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai. Meanwhile, AUC Press announced that they were organizing an alternative “Tahrir Book Fair” at the downtown campus.Continue Reading

Other bookshops offering summer discounts include Alef Bookstores and El Kotob Khan. And if you’re World Cup-obsessed, don’t forget that there are lots of great books about kora: I saw Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch at Alef, and I’m sure it’s elsewhere as well. You can also read Mohamed al-Bisatie’s DrumbeatContinue Reading

I’m currently reading Orhan Pamuk’s gorgeous Museum of Innocence (in English). I’ve taken it out from the library, thank goodness, so I was a little stunned when I flipped the book and saw that someone had paid 190LE for the tome. (And then, el hamdulallah, they donated it to aContinue Reading