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Salam Alekom I'm Taqwa Warrag
I'm an IT graduate
And today we're going to talk about a new subject which is reading, books and libraries
so why do we read in the first place?
we read to learn new things, to gain
Live in other worlds
to get inspiration
some people read to forget
they want to be distracted from something
some people read to remember
lots of reasons
especially history, people who read history
like Dr Mustafa Mahmoud said,
whoever reads history shall never feel sad
And will see life as days that God revolves between men
reading has many benefits
for example it relieves stress
they say that silent reading after the first 6 minutes
since you opened the book your heart rate starts to decrease
and you are already drifting away into the book you're reading
even the people who read lots of books are smarter and more attractive to other people
especially people who read non-fiction
they are like a walking library
so the question that pops into mind is, I want a book, where can I get it?
there are no bookshops in this country I'll have to travel & c.
but this is not correct
there are a lot of bookshops and I wasn't able to go to all of them
when I'm looking for bookshops here
for example when I was looking for books in English
I found them in three bookshops
they are probably more but I encountered them in three bookshops
which are Central bookshop, Nile bookshop and Burri bookshop
I searched for books in Arabic and I found way too many bookshops
from which, for example
are Madarik bookshop,
Azza publishing house, which most people are familiar with
There is alsaha'if publishing house
when I was broke and didn't have money to buy books I took my old books to exchange them for other books
There is a bookshop where you can exchange books without paying any money
Which is Hira' bookshop
also, instead of buying books you can go just go and read books, at a public library
There is the National library
and Faisal cultural center library
There is a library in Khartoum Bahri called al-Qurashi
All those are open public libraries
They have certain hours when you can come and read
You can pick a book, read it and put it back, or borrow it. That sort of thing
Other than that there are the people who sell their things on the street floors
Their books are good and inexpensive
you can agree with them to get you the books you want
they are mostly near Alsoug Alarabi
near the great mosque, and Unity school and many others
Other than that, you can keep up with the events related to reading
for example, there is "Mafroosh" which is every month
for exchanging books
Some people have book clubs
The details are written in the video description
And there is the international Reading day
There are a lot of problems facing us readers and the bookshop owners
First thing is marketing
The bookshops are many and we don't hear about them except by chance
Some bookshops are there for twenty years and no one's heard about it
why? Because the bookshop owners make the mistake of not marketing their things in the right way
They wait for the annual Khartoum international exhibition which is once a year
When someone comes to represent the bookshop to show they exist and you're like, oh really
and not everyone goes to that exhibition
so the number one problem is marketing and the owners should try to solve this probelm
or maybe we can help them
the second problem is the content
The books are old, and are mostly classics and fiction, these old stuff
and even new things - not necessarily that new, maybe 5 years old aren't found
The problem is the bookshop owners don't know what the people want to read
we know more about that
and we can help them by showing them what people want to read so they can keep updated
and so when they're bringing books from abroad they should know what to get
The third problem is that bookshops shut down
as we know that the oldest bookshop in the country, Sudan bookshop, was closed
and it was followed "The New bookshop" which is 56 years old
which was a bookstore that sells English books a bookshop as old as the country
So imagine the legacy we'd lost and are still losing, one closed bookshop after the other
because of the problems we'd mentioned and because people stopped reading and don't care anymore
I'm afraid that we'd wake up one day to find there are no more bookshops because they're all closed up
In the end we can change this and help so the culture of reading should return
we can think up of lots of things to help
for example we can start a small project of people getting together to exchange books
especially the people who travel an get books from abroad
we can meet, exchange books and talk about this matter
start book clubs,
we can make an online platform,
website, or a page anything
So the individual efforts of people, people can post about a bookshops they know
someone with some new information
someone who has a new book
anything to bring all the individuals together
so when you need something you just go into this one place
instead of being confused and wondering where to go
and also our connection with bookshop owners and library keepers should be good
we can show them and recommend what they could display and what should be available
because like I said, they don't know what we want to read
so they get the things they are familiar with
old things and stuff
books for older people, like politics are the most abundant books
In the end, try to read at any time, at any place
don't confine your reading to only in events or other things
read at all times
In public transport, between lectures, when you have a break, or in the office
When standing in line
Any place. Especially public transport
you can give books as gifts
we can try to think up of other more creative solutons
and return the spirit of reading like it used to be
So give me books, I can give you some too. We can exchange
you can follow me on twitter. If you have any suggestions or recommendations for books I'll be really happy
or even if you want to talk about anything related to books, I can talk about it forever. No problem
Thank you for watching, you have to leave a comment
Please check my blog and my video, and all the links bellow
and that's it
Salam alekom