Will Egypt's first-ever involvement in World Book Day be the harbinger of good news for the publishing industry, Wonders Dina Ezzat "I have never heard of World Book Day," said university student Nadia Hussein. "Is it something new? Is it related to the Reading for All project?" Hussein was leaving Diwan, one of Cairo's better bookstores, with a shopping bag of books in her hand. The LE100 worth of titles she had just bought included both fiction and nonfiction. Obviously a keen reader, Hussein said that not only had she not heard of World Book Day, there had been nothing at Diwan about it either. For one thing, she said, "there were no particular discounts or anything." That this popular bookstore was not marking the event probably had a lot to do with the fact that Egypt was only recognising World Book Day for the first time since UNESCO launched the event in 1995. "Yes, I have heard about it," said one of the store's clerks. "There was something about it in Al-Ahram the other day." Actually, on 23 April, Mrs Suzanne Mubarak made a televised announcement about Egypt's decision to participate in the UNESCO-initiated international celebration of reading. World Book Day, Mrs Mubarak said, was to become one of the main cultural events on the calendar. "It was only natural that Egypt -- with all its cultural weight and contribution to the book industry -- should join the world in celebrating books and reading." Mrs Mubarak said governmental and non- governmental efforts to promote reading and the availability of books would increase. More attention would also be dedicated to issues related to the book industry, including intellectual property rights. "The level of availability and accessibility of books is an unmistakable indicator of a society's commitment to acquiring knowledge. It reflects the profoundness of a nation's civilisation," she said. UNESCO calls World Book Day a "symbolic date" where books are celebrated and promoted. The date was chosen to coincide with, respectively, the death and birth dates of legendary and celebrated writers William Shakespeare and Maurice Druon. For over a decade, key Western capitals have marked the event with considerable attention and festivities. Over the past few years, World Book Day has also made its presence in a few Arab capitals -- particularly Beirut, which is considered a key Arab world publishing and literary venue. In Egypt, this year's festivities were headlined "Books are the source of creativity". While bookstores run by the General Egyptian Books Organisation, public libraries sponsored by Mrs Mubarak, and the Al-Shorouq chain of bookstores owned by Ibrahim El-Moalem, chairman of the both the Arab and Egyptian Publishers Unions, all took part, other privately owned bookstores were absent. "Never heard of it" was a typical answer offered to Al-Ahram Weekly by owners and assistants of large and small bookstores in Cairo. Even those who had heard of the event said they were making no special preparations or announcements for it as such. At the Talaat Harb Square branch of the Al-Shorouq bookstore, customers were being offered a 20 per cent discount on books published by Al-Shorouq; those produced by other publishing houses were priced at 10 per cent off. "We also gave away red roses to the first few people who visited the store on the morning of 23 April," said Mustafa Dakhesh, the bookstore's senior assistant. "But all in all it was an ordinary day; just business as usual." For Dakhesh and others, the low-key nature of the event had more to do with "the fact that this was the first time it was celebrated in Egypt." Many hoped next year's event would be preceded by a major awareness-generating campaign. Limited as it was on a local level, World Book Day did prompt renewed complaints by publishers, writers and readers alike over the state of Egypt's publishing industry. Readers complained about the high prices of most books, especially in light of the limited resources and burdened budgets of most Egyptian families. They hoped for more public libraries, as well as more low-cost, quality titles published by the Reading for All campaign. Parents dreamed of better libraries in public schools, and more attention paid to reading classes. Students said they hoped the Harry Potter books, for instance, would become available at their school libraries. Older individuals said they hoped leading newspapers would print or serialise books in special monthly supplements. Writers, meanwhile, were concerned about the limited publishing opportunities available to them, while publishers complained about limited government support, and the rising costs of producing high-quality books.
