JEDDAH, 9 September 2006 - Beginning Wednesday, book lovers in Jeddah will have 10 days to browse the latest titles at the annual book fair.
Executive manager of Al-Harithy Company for Exhibitions, Waleed Waged, said that this would be the first year the fair is organized and hosted exclusively by a private entity. In the past, King Abdul Aziz University has collaborated in the event.
"We organized last year's book fair in Makkah with the cooperation of Umm Al-Qura University," said Waged.
He pointed out that, as usual, the ministries of higher education and information and culture have checked and authorized the books that will be exhibited at the expo. Earlier this year, the ministries approved several books that had previously been banned in the Kingdom.
These book fairs offer readers an opportunity to buy the latest books as well as works that aren't easy to find in the Kingdom.
Waged said that due to conflicting schedules, the book fair will take place at Al-Harithy's Jamjoom Center exhibition hall and not at the main hall on Madinah Road where it has been held in the past.
More than 400 publishing houses from all over the Arab world are scheduled to attend. Unlike the Riyadh International Book Fair held in late February, the Jeddah fair will not feature any side activities, such as readings or signings. The decision not to hold these sessions may have to do with some of the problems that took place in Riyadh in February.
Though the Riyadh event was not open to women except on three women-only days, families were allowed in resulting in a mixed-gender environment. Several ultra-conservatives claiming to be agents of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice interrupted a number of events. In one incident, these men barged into a reading by women poets and demanded they cover their faces.
The book fair will be open every day to both men and women from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
