2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003
While prepping for my previous post on Pinot, I was going through some old emails and found one where he sent me photos of the old Al-Manara Bookshop that was located in Salmiya next to The Video Club.
Al-Manara was a fairly popular bookstore but there aren’t any photos of it available online. It’s one of those places you never thought about photographing and eventually it’s gone. The photos were taken on March 28, 2008 with a Nikon Coolpix P1.
via Pinot
There is a local Instagram account that sells children’s books paired with themed dioramas. I originally thought these themed dioramas came with the books and the account was just reselling them, but it turned out that the person was making each diorama themselves.
It’s a cool idea that can make reading more fun so if you have kids check the account @story.trunks.kw
Over the weekend I was reading passages from a book by a British journalist who was describing Kuwait after visiting it back in 1831. The book written by Joachim Stocqueler is called “Fifteen Months’ Pilgrimage Through Untrodden Tracts of Khuzistan and Persia, in a Journey from India to England.” It’s two volumes but the passages I was reading were from volume 1. I thought it was interesting and wanted to share two page from one chapter which you can read below:
Koete, or Grane as it is called in the maps, is in extent about a mile long, and a quarter of a mile broad. It consists of houses built of mud and stone, occasionally faced with coarse chunam, and may contain about four thousand inhabitants. The houses being for the most part square in form, with a courtyard in the centre, (having the windows looking into the yard,) present but a very bare and uniform exterior, like, indeed, all the houses in the Persian Gulph. They have flat roofs, composed of the trunk of the date tree. The streets of Koete are wider than those of Muscat or Bushire, with a gutter running down the centre. A wall surrounds the town on the desert face, but it is more for show than protection, as it is not a foot thick. To keep up the farce, however, a trench has been dug around the wall, and two honeycombed pieces of ordnance protect each of the three gates. Beyond the wall, nothing is to be seen but a vast sandy plain, extending to a distance of more than sixty miles. Not a tree, not a shrub affords the eye a momentary relief.
Koete within the walls is equally sterile, it literally yields nothing; and when to this is added the fact of the water being far from sweet, it is difficult to conjecture how such a site could have been chosen for the establishment of four hundred families. I was informed that the Arabs had only been in possession of the place about one hundred and
fifty years, and that previously to that period it was occupied by Englishmen and their forces, who received or conquered it from the Portuguese, in whose hands it enjoyed some notoriety during the plenitude of their importance in India.It certainly is a commodious harbour for small craft, and may probably have been occupied by the Portuguese, (the English could have had nothing to do with it, ) on account of the command it gives over the mouth of the river of the Arabs, and the power it thus conferred of interrupting the Turkish and Venetian trade with India.
If you want to read more, the full book is available to download in PDF format. Passages above start at page 18. Here is the link.
Also an original copy of volume 1 is available on eBay if you want to buy it. Seller is asking for $3,000 but I was able to negotiate down to $1,350. Here is the link to the book on eBay.
Photo on the very top is unrelated and from 1903. Source
One of the biggest complaints about the National Library is that it is only open during the day and only on weekdays when everyone is at work. But, starting this Tuesday, June 14th, the National Library will now open in the evenings from 4PM to 9PM, but only on Tuesdays.
I love the library so I hope this new influx of traffic won’t be an issue. There are a lot of important books and archives there with very little monitoring by staff or security. I’ve spent so much time there alone flipping through books and newspapers without seeing anyone so I’m personally worried some people will take advantage and steal books or rip pages out of the newspapers.
If you didn’t know about the library or want to know what’s there, check out my previous post here.
Zahra Marwan is an extremely talented visual artist who was born in Kuwait. When the British rule ended in 1961, her father failed to register his citizenship and so was considered stateless (Bedoun). Although her mother was Kuwaiti, Kuwaiti law stipulates that the citizenship of the children is passed on from their father so Zahra was born stateless. As more and more rights of Bedouns were removed, Zahra and her family left Kuwait and immigrated to the United States.
Zahra’s Instagram account is filled with beautifully painted memories and dreams, many of which are related to her time growing up in Kuwait. I’ve got one of her illustrations hanging on my wall and I love it along with the story behind it. I actually met Zahra a few months ago when she was visiting Kuwait and she’s as bubbly and imaginative in real life as her illustrations depict her to be. She’s a great storyteller, not only with her illustrations but also with her captions which is why when she recently published a children’s book, I ordered a copy right away.
“Where Butterflies Fill the Sky” is a book based on the true story of her and her family’s immigration from Kuwait. Her story and memories are beautifully illustrated and written making it as fun to go through for adults as it is for children. Sadly, I just checked all the online English bookshops in Kuwait and none of them seem to carry the book. I ordered mine from Amazon so I guess you’d also have to get it from there. She has a Kindle version available if you don’t want to wait, but I’d definitely recommend the hardcover edition. Here is the link to the book on Amazon.
Also make sure you check out Zahra’s Instagram account @zahra_marwan
“When the Sheikh Met the King” is a new investigative ebook by Kuwaiti Award-winning journalist Motez Bishara. Not sure if some of you remember but at one point Michael Jackson moved to Bahrain and lived there for some time. It was all really bizarre and I mostly remember photos of Michael Jackson going around Bahrain dressed in an abaya.
The ebook which comes out today digs into:
Jackson’s battle with depression, brought on by his unpayable $270 million personal loan and custody battle with ex-wife Debbie Rowe
A drug-induced near-suicidal incident on a hotel room balcony in Oman
Details of Jackson’s $7 million expenses; the Sheikh provided everything from a flashy recording studio to a Ferrari
Jackson’s contractual break from the sheikh that led to his demise; AEG Live’s buyout resulted in the fatal O2 concert dates
If you want to get the eBook, it’s available for 3 KD on Amazon. Link
The popular used bookshop Q8 Books which at one point was located at Bayt Lothan has now rebranded and opened in a new location. The bookshop is now called Bliss and Paper and last week they opened their new location in the city.
The new location looks great and is divided into a few sections. There is a room for children and full of kids books, another room which has a locked cabinet full of old important books on Kuwait but can also be used as a meeting room. Finally, the new location has a cafe with healthy sandwiches and vegan desserts.
The new location is open daily from 10AM to 9PM and if you want to pass by and check it out they’re located in the basement level of Dasman Complex (Google Maps). Also check them out on Instagram @blissandpaper
Books for Cancer is an online-based used bookshop run by girls where all the proceeds go to Al-Sidra foundation to help support cancer patients psychologically and financially. They carry mostly English books but also some Arabic ones and they sell both children’s books and adult books.
For more info check out their instagram account @booksforcancerkw or check out all the books on their website booksforcancerkw.com
Thanks Fahed
The Aafaq bookstore opened up in Avenues around 2 years ago but I never really passed by it because I never came across it. This weekend though I took a wrong turn while looking for another store and ended up right outside Aafaq.
It’s a fairly large store, probably their biggest one taking up two floors. They had English and Arabic books as well as a large selection of children’s books and games.
Finding the store isn’t easy and if you aren’t looking for it I doubt you’ll ever come across it. The easiest way to find Aafaq is heading to the H&M store in Grand Avenues. Go inside H&M and then head upstairs to the mens section and walk out the back of the store. You’ll find Aafaq in that courtyard in the back.
Back when I visited the National Library in October you couldn’t access any of the books yourself due to COVID safety precautions, you needed to have someone fetch the books for you. But, things are back to normal now. Yesterday morning I passed by the National Library and I was allowed access to all the books and archives. I still had to book an appointment via the meta.e.gov.kw website and you also need to be vaccinated to be allowed in, but other than that things are back to normal.
The library is next to my office which means I can go back to randomly passing by in the mornings on the way to work. I usually love going through old newspapers to find gems similar to the Hardees ad above from 1988 featuring the Thunder Cats. If you want the full resolution version click here.
The library is open Sunday to Thurday from 9AM to 1PM and for more info on what’s inside, check out my old post here.
Q8 Books, the popular used books store has a long history of moving. The original store was located in Kuwait City (pictured below) before later moving to Bayt Lothan. When Bayt Lothan got shut down they moved the bookstore to Dar Al Athar. Then last year during the pandemic the bookstore moved temporarily to another location in a tower overlooking Souq Sharq. Now for the fifth time, the store is moving again and it’s heading back to the city. The new location will be in Dasman Complex and I got a sneak peek last week and I think this might be the best version of Q8 Books yet, or maybe second best since the Bayt Lothan store was pretty epic.
I can’t share much more about the new location or plans yet but they’re opening up really soon and once they do I’ll share more info. For now, you can stay up to date by following them on Instagram @q8bookstore
The original Q8 Books location in Kuwait City.
The CAP Bookshop which carries amazing publishers like Assouline, Phaidon, Taschen and Thames & Hudson has moved into a much larger space next to their old location. The new location is at least 5 to 6 times larger than their previous space and they now have a lot more books on display.
This easily was one of my favorite bookshops in Kuwait and it’s gotten even better now. If you want to pass by and check it out it’s located on the top floor of Life Center in Shuwaikh, right next to Contemporary Art Platform. Google Maps
Yesterday I uploaded some old photos of Family Bookshop to Flickr which I had taken back in 2011 before they closed down. I had always assumed that the Salmiya location of Family Bookshop was the first and only branch but turns out that wasn’t the case,
The Family Bookshop started off as bible shops around the region by the Danish Missionary Society with the one in Kuwait opening up in 1910. But in the 60s, as part of their literature mission they decided to build a new concept called the Family Bookshop Group (FBG) with the following objectives:
From what I could gather there were two Family Bookshops in Kuwait. One at the American Mission Hospital (now the Amricani Culture Center) which opened in 1969 and pictured at the very top of this post. Then there was a second branch located in Salmiya which also opened up in 1969 (pictured above).
I think it was Salmiya because in the photo above taken outside their 1969 location, the building in the background on the far right of the photo looks like the building in Salmiya which the Family Bookshop we know was located in. I believe the building they were in got demolished so they moved to the location across the street in 1971 (pictured below).
The Salmiya Family Bookshop which most of us know eventually closed down in February 2013 when they were evicted from their premises and the building demolished.
The store manager at that time who you might recognize if you were a regular was Jaswinder Singh. He joined Family Bookshop in 1979 as a part time accountant before eventually become the manager. He’s now retired and back in India, but his daughter runs the bookstore @little_bees_books
I managed to find a bunch of incredible photos of the Family Bookshop in Kuwait in the 60s on the University of Southern California library website. I’ve uploaded them all to Flickr and you can view them here.
Also if you want to check out photos of Family Bookshop Salmiya before they closed down, click here.
Update: This post was updated with more information and the closing down date was adjusted from 2012 to 2013.
I remember a time when people were complaining about the lack of bookshops in Kuwait, well things have changed drastically. Below is a list of all the English bookshops I’m aware of in Kuwait. If I missed any let me know in the comments.
Aafaq Bookstore
Al-Asriya bookshop
Better Books
Book Seller
Book Stop
Bookish
Books and More
Books in Kuwait
Brilliant Company
CAP Bookshop
Center for Research and Studies on Kuwait
Claudia Al Rashoud
Jarir
Kuwait Heritage Library
Little Bee’s Books
Page Turner
Q8 Bookstore
Qasr Al-Thaqafa
Red Balloon Books
Saint Books
Spectrawide Bookstore
That Al Salasil
The English Bookshop
A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine sent me a link to a book on eBay saying “This is something you might want. American expat cartoonist who drew some funny sketches of life in Kuwait. Also a shawarma guide for the ‘90s.” Literally, 2 minutes later I sent him a screenshot of my order. It was selling for 9KD and it came out while I was at university in Lebanon so I was curious to know what was “in” while I wasn’t here. The book ended up being delivered yesterday and it turned out to be way more interesting than I expected it to be.
It’s 132 pages filled with illustrations, maps, reviews and recommendations of where to go and what to do in Kuwait all written in a humorous tone. It reminded me a bit of the Wizr series but with a lot more illustrations and content. I posted some pages up on my Instagram and pretty much I right away started getting bombarded by people asking where they can get a copy and I honestly have no idea.
There is one for sale on Amazon right now but the guy is asking for like $700 which is obviously ridiculous. At one point it looked like there was a copy available online but that was back in 2006 and the page no longer works. It’s 132 pages so I can’t sit down and scan the book one page at a time.
Until I figure out the best way to share the whole book online you can for now at least check out the few pages I’ve uploaded here.
Thanks Shaheen!!!
