BulldozerGirl
New Member
For some reason, most books published in the Middle East have a very unfriendly cover.
They're either hardcover books with golden engravings that look good in bookcases, or they're a weird kind of paperback, that's 2/3rds the size of an A4 page and not very portable, even if thin.
The designs on the cover of these paperbacks is also almost always the same. If the topic is about religion or politics (which it mostly usually is about), the title is written in a dripping blood font, and there's some weird drawing of a devil or a Star of David or American flag.
Arabic fiction books these days are mostly translations of other famous world novels of any language, or they're low-class romance books with a drawing of a woman with tears in her eyes on the cover and a rose. Some of them are also erotic. Books of poetry though, are plentiful.
It seems that in the Middle East, the majority of people read about religion and politics. For light-reading, they go for poetry, or magazines. Autobiographies are almost non-existant, and strangely, the fiction books that are most popular are all translations of Agatha Christie's work.
A lot of young people in the Middle East don't read much, and that's because they judge the books by their cover, and because of the limited variety available and the seriousness of most books.
What, in your opinion, are some steps and changes that should be taken to improve this situation and encourage reading?
They're either hardcover books with golden engravings that look good in bookcases, or they're a weird kind of paperback, that's 2/3rds the size of an A4 page and not very portable, even if thin.
The designs on the cover of these paperbacks is also almost always the same. If the topic is about religion or politics (which it mostly usually is about), the title is written in a dripping blood font, and there's some weird drawing of a devil or a Star of David or American flag.
Arabic fiction books these days are mostly translations of other famous world novels of any language, or they're low-class romance books with a drawing of a woman with tears in her eyes on the cover and a rose. Some of them are also erotic. Books of poetry though, are plentiful.
It seems that in the Middle East, the majority of people read about religion and politics. For light-reading, they go for poetry, or magazines. Autobiographies are almost non-existant, and strangely, the fiction books that are most popular are all translations of Agatha Christie's work.
A lot of young people in the Middle East don't read much, and that's because they judge the books by their cover, and because of the limited variety available and the seriousness of most books.
What, in your opinion, are some steps and changes that should be taken to improve this situation and encourage reading?