Reading Take #02

Everybody talks about how reading is important, how books should be available everywhere and how upsetting it is that nobody reads anymore. This is all very true, yet where are all the bookstores? The public libraries? This is something that really gets me frustrated. I need only one decent public library, and I need other book stores to get books from other than Borders who never seem to have the books I want, and when I order them I get them double the usual price.
Here are the places I get books from:
Borders (2 branches)
House of Prose (second-hand bookshop)
Let's Read campaign (second-hand charity event)

I'm thankful for the above, the last one is amazing because you get really cheap books. It's a monthly event, and the people there are of course, not arabs. There are arabs who come and buy but not the majority. We always complain how we don't read, and say 'Mashallah, a foreigner will always have a book in his hand.' And it ends there.
However, I feel there should be more options, at least a public library. Of course there are public libraries, but I need them to have readable, understandable books instead of the books nobody reads. So here's my plead: Open more books stores, more libraries, more initiatives for reading. Can we know about events that are related to reading? Can there be something more than the annual book fair? Can there be more book-signings? Please! I think people would be encouraged to read if there was a genuine and a true motive: get people to read more, simply that. Not to simply for show and a good reputation.

I'd like to give a huge thank-you to this blog: http://morethan1life.blogspot.com/
They haven't been posting much lately, but when they do it's amazing. They give updates on Arabic books, book reviews, recommendations and there's so much more. They don't get the publicity they deserve, and I really feel sorry about that because what they do is beyond wonderful.