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]
38 replies on “Borders opening in Kuwait?”
I love Borders , I highly recommend opening one in the Avenues.
Doubt it’s true Mark. Our lovely MOC / MOI (whomever) ban everything that comes in, hence why VIRGIN closed down.
It’s sickening that in 2008 we are still being spoon fed on what we can and cannot read in Kuwait.
We’re dying for a decent Media Outlet in The Avenues, yet all we have are crappy clothes shops.
Ban the MOC / MOI
i love ur blog! u always seem to have good news 🙂
that is the best news i heard in a while.
Thats seems GOOD…still to come three megamalls, Mall of Kuwait, Kuwait 360, and 7 Zones..there is a place for everyone in Kuwait
Wow, that would be amazing! I love borders.. but don’t u think there will be a lot of books black listed?
yeah, just wait for our loved ones at MOI to grab and ban everything that comes in there and replace it with books talking about religion and arabia…
I’ve heard this news last year from a friend. It’s been on the grapevine for awhile now, the store in Kuwait will be supplied right out of the one in UAE. Originally, it was supposed to open at Kuwait Int’l Airport.
Not really sure how that’s going to work out.
bring it over! but i hope it doesn’t get a DIET, just like virgin!
Wont happen my good people.
Just like dreams of opening alcohol in controlled environments like Hotels, they’ve got us by the throats.
Censors will chop everything making it a redundant business opportunity.
If it does open – it will shut within a year unless there are some serious changes to MOI / MOC policies. They claim we have the most free press in the Gulf – but it’s ironic how the book market in Kuwait is truly pathetic for a country of 3.2 million people.
Now if Borders is at the threshold can Landmark Bookstore of the Tata group be far behind ?
We are keeping our toes and fingers crossed that Borders is able to survive in Kuwait longer than Virgin could.
I find book stores in Kuwait very disappointing!
I hope so! I love that store… but then again I dont know if it will last… like virgin! I used to love it, and now I think its pathetic!
They may open a Borders, but it probably wont have any books!
Out of topic…sorry….but which is the best bookstore in Kuwait?
I REALLY hope this is true, Kuwait is seriously lacking any good book shops… however, in the end I think that it’ll end up just like Virgin. And it’ll shut down eventually. Sucks that anything of interest is immediately banned.
really?
where exactly in avenues? and when they officially open?
Deeps
Try Al-Manar bookstore near video club in Salmiya, opposite of Eureka, IMO its the best small bookstore that carry many intresting titles which I never found in Virgin in its prime days. I used to buy from that bookstore since the 90s and its still going
Many thanks indeed LunarDream…I shall surely try give it a shot 🙂
With or without Borders, books in Kuwait deserve a competitive pricing structure . It is truly sad that whilst there is a captive market for books etc. in Kuwait the establishment are doing all it can to exterminate an appetite for reading and all the finer things in Life.
as long as its SOMETHING better than virgin, i wont mind
eBooks using e-Ink (like the Amazon Kindle) is the future.
MOI/censorship becomes redundant.
There’s scope for a mega book store and at least, another medium size book store between Avenues Phase I and III. Opening of a Borders store in Kuwait can be a good thing iff the morality police read more books to educate themselves first, and thus temper their anti-liberal rhetoric.
I personally prefer Barnes & Noble but Borders will do for now. Also, Kindle will never take off, books have sentimental value unlike ipod which Amazon is trying to imitate.
Why Don’t you write something about your country ?? malik sheghil bl kuwait o bl kuwaities !!
Why is everyone excited about a brand that really wont be selling what it’s supposed to do ? Even if Borders manages to get some books down, it will be all stale. What the are going to highlight the New York Times best seller of 2 years back ? Look at Virgin, who buys there? Maybe the duty guard manages to read some torn pages after closing.
Do you really care to have Borders if you haven’t been to it in the first place ? Can it compete in a market where the best it can do is become another Jareer? How many readers are there in the Avenues anyways?
Ja Wrote: “Kindle will never take off, books have sentimental value unlike ipod which Amazon is trying to imitate.”
Just like the sentimental value Vinyl LP has for the music afficiando?
For your information, Kindle has already taken off. They are selling them faster than they can make them. Unfortunately, the tech behind it (wireless downloads) is designed with only the US as the target market.
Ooooooooh God… if they open a Borders here… books will be rated G!! Nothing interesting.. nothing exciting… probably just cooking books, childrens book and self help books..
That being said.. I hope it doesn’t happen!!
I believe Gameworks in Marina Mall was innitially meant to be Borders before Marina Mall opened many years ago. Don’t know why they changed their mind, maybe cause virgin was so close?
First.. I hope Borders in Avenues – if it happens – will look nicer than one in Mall of the Emirates, with its ugly tiles.. looks a big bathroom with bookshelves
Second… MOI will censor it to death, so what’s the point?
However…. much as we like to bitch about MOI etc, the sad fact remains that books are a losing proposition in Kuwait. Simply not enough people read, so mega-bookstores can’t justify staying open and paying outrageous rents. If books were as popular – and profitable – as we’d like to believe… you can count on the megastore owners fighting the MOI to their deaths!
Since when people read? I only know one guy who reads this Harry Poter BS, the remaing 20 (more or less) never opened any thing outside thier school curreculum, and we are all just doing fine.
About censorship, I downloaded this Chicago book and found it the silliest Egyptian author who knows everything and figured it all. He was talking about everything with no big idea beside it was located in Chigaco!
Frankly speaking, I wouldn’t like to read books describing how a village girl was shaking her boobs while cooking!. This is demeaning to literature if anything at all.
Stop ranting people, it unhealthy. 🙂
Zaydoun has, as usual, been able to hit the nail on its head.
Personally, I prefer Waterstones’ to Borders but I am not complaining about Borders entering Q8. Maybe they ought to have tested the waters first with a smaller W.H.Smith-like newsagent concession at KWI International before jumping hook, line and sinker at the Avenues.
Does this mean we longer need to subscribe to the New Yorker, GQ and the Atlantic Monthly, from hereonin ?
For a change people on this blog are actually, discussing books and not the opening of some junk food outlet in the country! Now that’s what I call refreshing and revolutionary.
Another bookstore here in kuwait? Wohoo!! I dont mind though there will be lotsa ink-cencorship everywhere 😛
Anon 32… thanks. And you’re right, I wish they could’ve done a smaller thing like WHSmith but no… bigger is always better, except when it’s not!
The day I see a bookstore in Kuwait selling germany philosphy (i.e. Nitzche) or any book for aliester crowley without any restriction will be the true day of media freedom. Till then, I’ll stick to Reader’s digest.
shame they do not have a bookstore like Borders in the Avenues
They didn’t open 🙁