Flea Book Shop in Cairo
Thursday 10 March 2011
, Posted by Octa at Thursday, March 10, 2011
I haven’t knew what people call this little flea book shop. Because I found it by chance. When I came to it, suddenly I flashed upon a same type of this book shop in my country. In Senen area - Jakarta, there is a traditional book shop, but it is big and has more than 90 bookstalls. And also In Malioboro area – Jogja, that has more than 100 bookstall, even it is like super market today.
Yeah, I found this mini shopping in Ataba area, the biggest traditional market in Cairo - Egypt. It located between Ataba fringe area and sub way station. It has about fiveties bookstalls that made from carved wood. Every kiosk has a wide about 2X3 meters.
The books sold are many kinds and varied, I mean not only Arabic book, but also in English and France languge (the latest kind is in little numbers). They are also in many topics and genres (even all topics), but in English language, the topics are more of about politics, language and grammar, economy, philosophy, business, physics, chemistry, thought and novels. And in Arabic language, the topics are more about Islamic religion, novel and stories, politics, philosophy, economy, thought and books for children. But the one that made me feel wonder is about existence of adult or risque books (novels/stories), I found them in an amount not less (in Arabic language), whereas they are not sold in other opened public book stores in Egypt.
Although a flea book market, many literatures that sold here are in high quality. Especially Arabic literatures, that they has many rare ancient literatures (turath) and they are sold in expensive price. The book writted by Averroes (Ibn Rusyd – I don’t remember its name) with a thickness of 130 pages is LE 45 (about $ 8) in the end of bid. That may be because of the maintenance cost, especially for re-covering to the book’s cover.
But also many high quality books are sold by little price. Many books here are sold by price category, like books that sold by LE 5, whatever book, or sold by LE 2, whatever book, name, publisher and writer. So, categorization like this kind also has high many quality books.
Whatever, this place is also good for you who do like reading and writing about scientific literature and always to complete your knowledge, or may be you don’t find the book you wanted in your favorite book store because it all gone, but 80% you will get it here. Come to Ataba, and you’ll find the flea book market before or above the sub way station.
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