[gallery td_select_gallery_slide="slide" ids="23172,23170,23171,23169"] Hassan Cheruppa Saudi Gazette Hundreds of publishers and authors from 25 countries took more than 1 million titles to Jeddah anxious about the prospects of their sales, but when the International Book Fair in the city concluded last week almost all of them jubilantly returned home with a promise to come back next year with even more titles. The event turned out to be an exciting experience to both the book sellers and authors, who bid farewell to the Bride of the Red Sea exuding: "Jeddah jiddan jiddan" (Jeddah is very very good). The 11-day event saw the sale of books worth more than SR100 million and visitors exceeding 800,000, representing all segments of Saudi and expatriate communities. The fair gave book lovers a golden opportunity to have close contacts with many of their favorite authors. About 450 male and female authors who were present throughout the event signed copies of their books for their fans. Prince Mishal Bin Majed, governor of Jeddah and chairman of the supreme committee for the book fair, thanked the people of Jeddah as well as the organizers and publishing houses for making the event a big success. "The huge number of visitors was well beyond our expectations. We are overjoyed and feel proud of the intellectual potential of our brothers and sisters who truly recognized the real value of books," he said, while noting that this huge gathering reflects a bright future for the publishing industry in the Kingdom. Prince Mishal said the visitors occupied the entire area of the Events Land covering 50,000 square meters in South Obhur Corniche . "There are not many examples in the world in organizing such a massive event with only a short period of 75 days for preparations," he said, adding that preparations for the next edition of the book fair would begin immediately after the event. "The arrangements for the next edition will befit the rich traditions, history and culture of Jeddah," he said. Speaking to Saudi Gazette, Ahmad Al-Haidar, a Kuwaiti author, publisher and editor at Al-Qabas newspaper, said the Jeddah book fair will have a glorious future with a record number of visitors in coming editions. "People here are thirsty for reading, and we are so excited to see a huge number of visitors, mainly youngsters from day one itself. Unlike many other book fairs, here we saw all types of readers in large numbers," he said. Excited over the big sales, Haidar, who also manages the Kuwait-based Platinum Book for Advertising, Publishing and Distribution, said in a humorous vein: "Two days before finishing the fair, everything is finished, except us. We will also finish soon." Haidar, who heads the social media department at Al-Qabas, said the publishing firm co-owned by him has reached an agreement with Google for electronic publishing. Well-known literary critic Hussain Bafaqeeh said the book fair was extremely successful and it triggered a sort of intellectual awakening. Qenan Al-Ghamdi, prominent Saudi media figure, said the Jeddah fair was successful in every sense of the word. "During my experience spanning over 15 years in taking part in international book fairs, I can say with confidence that the fairs in Sharjah, Jeddah and Algiers were the best in terms of the volume of sales and marketing of books, in addition to a big draw of visitors," said Ihab Muhammad of the Beirut-based Arab Unity Studies Publishing House. Nabeel Bin Marwah, another publisher from Lebanon, said Riyadh, Jeddah and Sharjah book fairs registered the highest sales for his publishing firm – Dar Al-Intishar Al-Arabi. He said 90 percent of the readers preferred hard copies of books while only 10 percent sought digital versions. Readers from other parts of the Kingdom also visited the book fair. Sameer Nahas, director general of Saudi Post in Makkah region, said Saudi Post dispatched 401 parcels weighing a total of 7,689 kilograms to customers who came to the fair from various cities. The book fair was a real bonanza for Arab readers as an overwhelming majority of the books displayed were in Arabic. Some non-Arab expatriates complained that even the world classics in English and other languages could not be found at the fair but their Arabic translations were available in many stalls. These included Nikos Kazantzakis' Zorba the Greek, and The Fratricides, Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and War and Peace, Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera, Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince, Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, Mahatma Gandhi's My Experiments With Truth, Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island and Mario Puzo's The Godfather. The books in Arabic also included biographies of South Africa's anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela, Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro, and popular footballers Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr. Among the best sellers were Lailah Ghashiyah: Qissah Saher (The Night of Misfortune: Story of a Sorcerer), a novel by the Emirati writer Obaid Bumelha, The Transcendent by Bahraini novelist Ali Shams, renowned Saudi writer and Arabic Booker Prize winner Abdo Khal's latest novel Sidwah Lail (A Night by Chance), prominent businessman Abdulrahman Al-Faqeeh's autobiography "Glimpses from My Life," and books by former Minister of Labor the late Ghazi Al-Gosaibi. Cultural programs, including seminars, workshops, and poetic evenings were among the highlights of the book fair. The seminars witnessed hot discussions on several topics concerning writing and publishing. The themes included "Experiments of some eminent Saudi writers and cultural figures", "Influence of media in deepening stereotyping," and "Relationship between author and publisher." The speakers at the session on "The credibility of new media" included Jameel Diyabi, editor in chief of Okaz, noted journalist Sarah Dandrawi, Abdurahman Al-Khariji and Mutlaq Al-Baqami. In his speech, Diyabi said the print media is still relevant in the digital age because of its high credibility and accountability. He said the strong point of the print media currently is its propensity toward analyzing news and telling stories behind the stories.
