Starving for Books

I would think that some international or expat organisation should look into this. The British Council, I would have bet my hands would have thought about this. I'm just lucky I haven't placed any such bet, becaus ethey haven't established anything of the sort. Its one thing that is sorely lacking in Qatar.

I can't even believe when some of my co-workers ask me if I'm a girl, when I tell them that last night I just stayed at home and read.

A culture can go nowhere without knowledge, and books have and will always be the primary source of knowledge. It says a lot about a people's mentality when they ask such stupid question. seriously, not only is that sexist, but absolutely ignorant.

Did this comment just descend into a rant? I digress, kind of.

You know spicemom, I read in the Gulf Times a few weeks ago that there is a library in Qatar. The Qatar National Library, at the round-about just after New World Centre, if you are travelling towards the bridge at the beginning of Corniche.

The library is said to have 50,000 english books and many more Arabic ones. However (and isn't there always a variant of "but" when it comes to anything in Qatar), the memebership process is lengthy and full of papers. Therefore, I haven't been able to check out what kind of collection they have, but it would be worth looking into. Although I am not sure if they would carry the kind of stuff I'm into these days.

back home i seldom buy books but instead i rent them am wondering if there is anything like this here in qatar or even a library perhpas. this helps as then i wont be stuck with loads of books that takes up space and also i get to feed me passion for reading at the same time dont want to spend a bomb on this passion of mine......

I love to read and will miss access to books as well. With the amount of people who want access to books, I was wondering if interested people could start a "village" library.

When books were so expensive that a person may only afford one or two, people in villages would start a private library with dues going to the purchase of new books. (They mainly purchased encyclopedias.) With enough people paying 10 or 15 USD per month plus adding whatever books they have, we could quickly build up a good selection. (Don't know where they would be stored, but it's an idea.)

We will be bringing a good sized library with us also...well over a couple hundred to start with.

Hey scmasse. Thanx for the reply. I actually dropped you an email at the address listed on this site. Hoep you got it, or else it might be caught in ur junk mail.

I'd be willing to help you out...how can I contact you?

Ha! good to know that atleast someone, somewhere is following rule sin Qatar. No problem.

What kind og books are you into by the way? Cuz I do have a pretty nice current collection, and I wouldn't mind swapping books so we can both read a bit more without spending much.

Of note, during the last book run I made to Dubai, I picked up:

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Saturday by Ian McEwan

The Old Man And The Sea by Ernest Hemingway

War Trash by Ha Jin

Harlot's Ghost by Norman Mailer

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Che's Guerilla War by Regis Debray

Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The Algebra of Infinite Justice by Arundhati Roy

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Rumi, Poet and Mystic by Reynold Nicholson

Salt and Saffron by Kamila Shamsie

Rommel, the Desert Fox by Desmond Young

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

If you want any of these, tell me I'd be happy to hoook you up. Its always good to be in touch with another book lover.

"For legal, Privacy, and security reasons, no one is allowed to use the mailbox registered in your name. You are the only person allowed to use your mailbox to receive packages."

I'm afraid it's not possible as it's against Aramex Shop&Ship rules and I wouldn't want to geopardize my account with them.

Hmm.. that sounds much better, honestly.

However, and I don't mean to seem overbearing- but How would it seem to you if we shared the cost of this mailing service?

I don't think my 14 books will come to 1 kilo, but it sounds as if we could both benefit from such a transaction. I'd be willing to let you see my ordering list just so ure happy that I'm not procuring anything I shouldn't be. You already have an account with Aramex and we could just share the charges for the shipping. Good for both of us.

I thank you for your reply, but do think about it in this regard. It would help us both, and we could in essence, order more in the long run.

Forget about buying books in this area.

What I do is order books through Amazon then have them shipped through the Aramex Shop&Ship service.

They provide you with a US mailbox (and UK mailbox if you want to order from Amazon UK) so the shipping charges from Amazon (or whatever the seller in the US is) are local shipping charges.

Aramex charge $8 for the first half kilo and $5.50 for each additional half kilo.

So for a kilo of books you are paying QAR 50 which is less than $14.

Check it out:

Aramex

There's a one-time non-recurring $35.00 subscription fee.

You can also try these 2 online sellers, one in Beirut and the other in London, for books of a more regional nature:

Saqi Books

AlDoukan