Category: Mags & Books

Desert Girl sent me the most amazing thing today, a PDF of scanned pages from a National Geographic issue from 1952 which talks about Kuwait. The article is 20 pages long and contains 25 pictures of which 11 are in color. It’s incredible I love it. The caption under the picture above says:

A Mobile Medical Clinic, Bought with Oil Wealth, Tours Kuwait Villages
For ailing Arabs who cannot travel to the capital, the Sheikdom provides an American-built trailer unit staffed by a physician, nurse, and technician. Here the doctor examines an elderly man at an outlying village; other patients wait their turn. Treatment costs them nothing. New hospitals, including one for animals, are part of Kuwait’s heavy investment in its own well-being.

Here is the PDF for you to down. It’s around 4MB in size. [PDF Link]

Thanks Desert Girl!

The Kuwait Bookshop has been around for a pretty long time and although its not a Barnes & Noble it does have a pretty decent collection of books and magazines. If I am not mistaken I think it actually has the largest collection of books and magazines in Kuwait. Because its an old bookshop they have a lot of older books that sometimes can be pretty interesting. The bookshop is located in the basement of Muthana Complex and its a very quiet and cozy place with friendly and informed staff. There is a lot of parking which is a plus. Their phone number is 22423876 in case you need to ask about a book.

I just got the new copy of Thouq magazine today and it turns out they have a small write up on my blog. I also noticed the magazine is now like 6 to 8 times bigger in size, not page wise but actual physical size. Its huge and you can see in the picture below how big it is compared to the iPhone. I wonder if all their issues are going to be this big or if its just this one. Its definitely more interesting and I love the paper they used to print on.

I passed by Carrefour today because I heard they had the new UK edition of WIRED magazine. For some odd reason the US version of WIRED magazine no longer comes to Kuwait so its good to know the UK edition does. Anyway it must have been sold out since I couldn’t find it, instead I found MAKE. I picked up the latest issue for KD3.750 which is actually cheaper than the US price which is $15. Its surprising that they sell MAKE in Kuwait since its a do it your self projects magazine and I didn’t think there was a market for it here. [Link]

I was checking out Nemo’s blog when I found her post on a cafe located in Omneya complex in Salmiya called Book Cafe.

This is the description taken from the Book Cafe facebook page:

A quiet place
Provides you with Taekwondo, physical and mental relaxation
To think deeply, to read a book, to discuss a draft
My place is the beginning to achieve a place for you in the world
Start here

Judging by the pictures the place looks cool (color matches my blog) and the idea seems interesting but not too sure about the location. Nat also brought up a good point that usually when you want to read a book its more comfortable to read it while sitting on a sofa not a dinning room table. So bean bags or cozy sofas might be more suitable…

You can check out more pictures on Nemo’s blog [Here]
Here is the link to the Book Cafe’s facebook page [Link]

Picture taken by Nemo

I picked up the latest issue of brownbook and they had an article on Kuwait’s online fashion market mentioning how there were nearly 60 online stores and highlighting their favorite 7. Here they are:

1. www.gojiboutique.com
2. www.krayvstore.com
3. www.cash-art.com
4. www.q8-fashion.com
5. www.butterfly-g.com
6. www.pinkmoonboutique.com
7. www.labiella.com

The coordinator of SPIN’s new global correspondence program emailed me the following:

SPIN magazine, USA’s leading music magazine is looking for fresh, new faces to write about Kuwait’s local music scene. If you or anyone you know would want to write about the music you enjoy, get paid for it, and gain some exposure in the US, please let me know. Feel free to ask me any questions and forward this to anyone who might be interested!

If you’re interested please send me a photo of yourself, a short bio (a couple paragraphs including age and how long you’ve lived in the area) and a little about your area’s music scene as soon as possible.

If you’re interested send an email to [email protected]

Back in March I posted about how the blog was mentioned in the Brownbook Urban Guide Kuwait edition and since then I’ve been trying to get my hands on a copy of the book. I couldn’t find it in Kuwait and when I was in Lebanon a month ago I only found a box set that included a whole bunch of guides from around the region but I didn’t want to pony up $60 just so that I could check myself out. Finally a few days ago a friend of mine got me a copy of the Kuwait edition which she found by chance in another bookstore in Lebanon. The guide is pretty cool featuring most of the trendy places in Kuwait and a few other interesting places to visit. I need to buy a few of these guides and give them away to some friends (not cuz I am in it but because it makes Kuwait look cool) but I couldn’t find one copy yet a few!

I was flipping through a magazine when I saw the above censored ad. I am against censorship but if they are going to do it they should at least do it right. Saving ink?

Q80-Chill Girl just posted on her blog that she spotted a Moleskine stand at The Sultan Center. Judging by her picture above it looks like they have the city guides, hopefully they also have the plain pocket books and other kinds of Moleskines. Its great someone finally thought about bringing them to Kuwait but whats surprising is a supermarket brought them in instead of say a bookshop or an office supply store. Good move Sultan Center, now if only they can get a larger collection of salami… [Link]

Read at Work is a website full of stories ranging from short ones to classic which you can read while at work. Now the cool part is that the interface of the site is designed to look like you are working so when you enter the site it launches in full screen and resembles Windows XP. Then when you find a story you like it will open up in what looks like a powerpoint presentation. That way you could read your story while pretending you are flipping through a presentation. Its brilliant! [Link]

A few blogs got mentioned in Abwab magazine’s latest issue. I’ve never seen the magazine before but Forzaq8 has a scan of the page on his blog. [Link]

I just read on another blog that the Borders bookstore is opening up at The Avenues. I hope this information is true. By the way is there anything that isn’t opening up at The Avenues? I don’t read a lot of books but I do read a lot of magazines and I find the lack of selection in Kuwait disappointing. I mean you have more magazines about surfing than you do on motorbikes, who’s the genius behind that? [Link]

Radiant Guy emailed me to tell me that my blog was mentioned in the new brownbook urban city guide on Kuwait. brownbook is an urban lifestyle magazine focusing on middle eastern lifestyle agendas, events and developments. The magazine is available internationally (even on Amazon) and the city guides should be available everywhere soon. This is what the article says about the blog:

This is a kind of strange selection for shopping, but when doing our research we found out that mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com offer an aerial perspective towards the shopping as well as the social development in Kuwait. With the blog constantly updated by Mark and Nat, a couple who are living in Kuwait offer an in depth perspective towards Kuwait.

248am.com

The brownbook magazine is very stylish and trendy and the guide is also designed beautifully so its a really cool thing that I am in it. I am also the only blog in there. Here is a larger scan of my page from the guide. [Picture]

Thanks Radiant Guy!

So Amazon just released the Kindle which according to them is what the iPod is to music, the Kindle is to books and magazines. It looks really ugly but the concept is really strong and I think has a lot of potential. You purchase books and subscribe to magazines and newspapers through the Kindle device and it all works wirelessly without the need of a computer or Internet connection. The problem is the device connects wirelessly using EV-DO which I know very little about and I doubt works here in Kuwait. You can check out the Amazon page for more information and better pictures. [Amazon]