RIYADH: Bookworms in Riyadh, Tabuk, and Dhahran participated in a reading marathon and collectively read 422,307 pages in three days, resulting in 4,223 trees being planted.
The three-day marathon, which kicked off on Thursday and concluded on Saturday, drew in participants of all ages.
For every 100 pages a person read, a tree was planted as part of Ithra’s commitment to the Saudi Green Initiative.
The reading marathon was created with the goal of fostering a fun environment for book lovers. (Supplied)
Initially, the target was for readers to read a total of 200,000 pages and thus plant 2,000 trees, but booklovers achieved double the target.
An annual initiative by Ithra in Dhahran, readers in the city were joined for the first time by those in Riyadh and Tabuk for three consecutive days of reading.
HIGHLIGHT
The reading marathon fell on a weekend with the hopes of attracting more readers on their days off. Initially, the target was for readers to read a total of 200,000 pages and thus plant 2,000 trees, but booklovers achieved double the target.
Readers had to read their books in person at one of the participating libraries in each city — the Ithra Library in Dhahran, the King Fahd National Library in Riyadh and the iRead Library at the First Secondary School in Tabuk.
Participants could select from the books available at the libraries or bring their own books from home in any language they preferred as most books in all three libraries were in Arabic.
The reading marathon was created with the goal of fostering a fun environment for book lovers. (Supplied)
The total pages read would be registered in a booklet at each library’s reception center and then counted as one’s total, regardless of whether they came from one book or several. Readers had the option of reading on only one of the days, two or all three.
The reading marathon fell on a weekend with the hopes of attracting more readers on their days off.
Medals were distributed to the top readers at the end of the marathon.
The reading marathon was created with the goal of fostering a fun environment for book lovers to embrace reading at the library and to strengthen the local reader’s reading stamina.
