Beirut's book fair surprised me twice: first, by its very large scale and the diversity of its' exhibited material and second, by its' massive number of visitors. I thought that we have become a nation that abandoned reading and became totally focused on more important issues, such as accusing one another of treason, but in reality I came across thousands of people, at the fair, who want to read, or seem to be of the reading type. At the stand of “Dar An-Nahar”, I found everything I wanted and called Mr. Ghassan Tueni, the first person I had ever met among the princes of the Arabic press, and we agreed that I pay him a visit. At “Dar al-Saki”, I remembered my dear friend, the late May Ghossoub. She was a rare type of person who did not only sell books, but read them as well. I used to consult her about this book or that, and ask her for an out-of-print edition, or for one, which simply disappeared, and she would find it for me in a sort of magic. Then, I stood before the English books and recalled how May used to draw my attention to the most important ones, or simply suggest what might complete the information about the author and his book. At “Dar al-Saki”, I bought the book written by my colleague Hazem Saghieh “Nancy is not Karl Marks”. However, I will be writing about some of the books that I collected tomorrow and the day after. Then, I moved to “Riad Nagib El-Rayyes” publisher's stand, but couldn't find “Riad”, even after visiting the stand for three consecutive days. Yet, on my first day, I came across my colleague Ghassan Charbel who offered me his book “Saddam was here” with an autograph, knowing that I had previously received it from the publisher in London and presented in this column. I already own many of the books published by “Riad Nagib El-Rayes”; yet again, I bought what I could find in the anonymous works series, although I already have most of them in London. In fact, I have decided to start a small library at my house here in Lebanon, instead of moving my books from one country to another. In other words, I will be buying a big number of dictionaries, such as the “New Oxford Dictionary” (English – Arabic), “Al Mawrid Al Waseet” (Arabic – English / English – Arabic), and “Al Munjid Arabic Dictionary”. However, among all dictionaries that I found, the closest to my heart is the “Al-Munjid fi l-Lugha wa-l-I'lam” (Al Munjid of Language and Media), the first centennial edition, knowing that “Al Munjid” was the first Arabic dictionary that I acquired before I became rich enough to buy Ibn Mandhur's “Lissan al-Arab” in six volumes. The latter traveled with me around three continents before we settled in London. At the book fair, I also found a new edition of “Lissan al-Arab”, in 18 volumes, published by “Dar Al-Kotob Al Ilmiyya”, reflecting the efforts of researchers in the review, analysis, comparison and note addendums. The weight of a single dictionary is equivalent to many books, which required a shipping operation to take them home. Thus, I walked heavy with my books to the stand of “Assafir” newspaper, where I failed to find our friend Talal Salman. There, I bought a “caricature” book by Naji al-Ali who was assassinated near my house in London, at the time he was working at “Al Qabas” newspaper. He was shot in the face on 22/7/1987 and died at the hospital on 29/8/1987. Back then, my mother – God rest her soul – and I stood at the barrier set by the police and saw a man saying that he heard a gunshot, after which he saw a middle-aged man lying on the ground. We went back home and did not know until the evening news on TV that the victim was actually Naji al-Ali, the caricature genius of the “Palestinian cause”. Along with the caricature book, the saleswoman gave me a few travelling books that “Assafir” distributed with its issues, many of which I already have in London. Since I have been living abroad for decades, it pleased me to come across, among the publishing houses, those I had known in the 1960s and the 1970s such as “Dar el Ilm Lilmalayeen”, “Dar Sader”, “Dar el Adab”, “Dar el Shorouk”, “Librairie du Liban” and “The Center for Arab Unity Studies"; the stand of the Center included a large number of books, but no unity. Then I thought, had we achieved unity, books would have overflowed outside the exhibition space. Finally, I was happy to see Dr Walid Khalidi at a party organized by his friends, on the sidelines of the exhibition, at the release of an English book entitled “The Nature of a Changing Earth. This book includes articles on Palestine and the Middle East, in honor of Dr Khalidi who taught at Oxford, the American University of Beirut, and Harvard. I was lucky to take a course with him on the Middle East at the American University of Beirut in the 1970s, while he was a visiting professor. In my personal lexicon, Walid Khalidi is a hero who kept and documented the history of Palestine as he refuted the falsehood of the Biblical Jewish History, while the Zionists are trying to devise a history on the ruins of Palestinian cities and villages. Few academicians have reached Khalidi's rank, and when we saw the tears in his eyes as he spoke, we all shared his weeping for Palestine and the nation. To be continued tomorrow.
