Before I started 248AM I had another blog called Miskan. Before Miskan I had a photo blog (that sadly doesn’t exist anymore) called Moblogging in Kuwait. Before Moblogging in Kuwait I started off blogging at qHate.com back when the only bloggers around were just me, Nibaq and Zaydoun from Kuwait Unplugged. Thing is I’ve posted about so much stuff in the past 7 years that I’ve completely lost track of what I’ve posted about and what I haven’t. For example it recently came into my attention that I haven’t posted about Q8Books or the original Kuwait Bookshop although I could swear I’ve posted about them before. Turns out I discovered both those places back during my Moblogging from Kuwait project in 2004 but only mentioned it briefly on Miskan and with a picture on Moblogging from Kuwait (actually called Nat my girl friend in that post back then!) yet I thought I had done a proper post about it here on 248AM. Anyway since I haven’t I figured I would do so now.
Q8 Books
Q8 Books is the only used books shop I am aware of in Kuwait. There actually aren’t that many places that sell used anything here in Kuwait which makes Q8 Books even more special. The place is filled to the brim with a ton of used books ranging from novels, kids books to cooking books and more. The owner of the place is a great guy who opened the place and runs it out of passion. They even have a website that contains all the books they have in the shop, how cool is that? The store is located on the mezzanine floor of the shopping center behind Johnny Rockets Salhiya. For store opening hours and to check out their collection of books you can visit their website www.q8books.com
The Kuwait Bookshop
Everyone knows the large Kuwait Bookshop located in the basement of Muthana Complex in Kuwait City but very few people know about their first and original store located a few hundred meters away. The original Kuwait Bookshop location was the first English bookshop to open up in Kuwait (so I was told) and the location is still open and active. Although the Muthana branch is pretty cozy the original branch is even cozier. The store is two stories with the top floor being my favorite since it feels like it contains hidden treasures. I’ve been there a few times and never seen anyone in the shop but the employees tell me they do get a lot of customers. The original Kuwait Bookshop is located near Restaurant 99 on the Sheraton Roundabout.
Note: Off topic but I think Moblogging from Kuwait was my best blog so far. Sadly it was hosted on textamerica.com which shutdown and took my blog with it. Luckily most of it is still archived on web.archive.org although 99% of the pictures aren’t. It’s still fun to flip through and read my old posts there. I used to post from my Sony Clie UX-40. To read my old posts, follow [this link] click on the first image and then keep clicking next.
28 replies on “My favorite bookshops in Kuwait”
Q8books is in the Mezzanine floor not first.
Thanks a lot for writing about Q8 Books. Never knew it existed.
AlSalam Tower ;p
Tata: fixed
https://dawoodtreasury.com/
Here’s the link to their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kuwait-Kuwait/Q8books/135779306433081
In fact Mark this is how I got to find your blog. I was googling Kuwait Book Shop then I found your blog and I was surprised that you or someone was upset with the owner daughter. His name is Bashir Al-Khatib it is not like a secret or private not to mention his name. He did have that store which has that stairs to his office. Besides that time in the 1960-70 he carries the nicest old Hallmark cards. He also used to supply might be till now Kuwaiti university with most of their books. He is Syrian and I’m wondering if the new used books belong to one of his daughters.
So, after that I became addicted to read your blog to learn what is going on in Kuwait…
Great post.
Where can i find some Moleskine Notebooks ?
@ Mark they have one at the Ahmadi Souk where all the books are up for a 50% discounted price as they are planning to wind up operations there!!
Pedro: sultan center salmiya
Q8 books sounds like a great place. I’ll be heading there this weekend. Thanks for posting.
By the way Mark can we confirm with Nat that she was the gf you were referring to back in 2004;)
Thanks for the post Mark!
Kulsum yes you can
heh! alright I just quickly browsed through your posts on Moblogging and Mark’s fav words back then were
” Cool, Stuff, Strange, Corny and Mcdonalds!”
How bright:P I wonder how much of that has changed now hehe. No really that STUFF is COOL. Only wish all the pictures we available.
I’ve been going to Q8books for 7 years. It’s my favorite place in Kuwait 🙂
@ PedroDashT, I love moleskin notebooks too, I get mine from Sultan Centre in Salmiya.
Thank u! I have been looking for decent bookstores every since I moved to Kuwait! In Lebanon there is a place called “unsold” who also have old magazines and books, a treasure. Happy to know they have the same here. And Pedro, I got my Moleskine from Office depot in avenues, is that its name? anyway the one facing ecco on first floor.
sous: Where is Unsold located now? Used to be my favorite place back during university since they used to carry magazines 6 months old but like 1/5th the price. It used to be located next to Smith Supermarket but then they moved and I lost them…
They relocated. They are still close to Smith but directly on Sadat Street, close to Photo Naji, haven’t been there though but I pass by them all the time. In addition to books,we used to use their magazines for clippings for collages during Uni.
yeah thats why I also used to get my magazines from them, for university art classes 🙂
Sure is a nice place. Have been a visitor since 2006-2007.
https://mufeed.livejournal.com/19980.html
https://mufeed.livejournal.com/4379.html
nice link can help with libraries contact numbers:
https://www.findq8.com/SearchCompanyArb.cfm?startRow=181
There’s a great used book store in Kuwait city, it’s behind the Kuwait city public library, at the end of the gold souk. Its kind of hard to find if you don’t know what you’re looking for, the main entrance is in the alley between the public library and the last building in the gold souk, but it’s very distinctive. The front doors are huge, made of thick intricately carved wood, and they’re really well taken care of and shiny. In the kinda battered area it’s in, it really stands out as clean.
I used to go there a lot when I was in high school, but I haven’t been in a while. They had pretty big collection, the very old books (circa 1920’s) were mostly in arabic/urdu/persian (and reallllyyy expensive) but the more recent ones from the 70’s-90’s were mostly english. They also had huge boxes filled with old archie/tintin/asterix comics that they sold for .250 fils each!
Hi Zee! I hope you’ll still see this (or maybe Mark will have an answer), but do you have any idea whether this shop is still open? I’m going to take down your directions and try to find it (mostly because when I tracked down Dar Dawoud in the souq lately, it was cloesd down indeterminately :S) – but I’d love to find this one if possible! Thanks 🙂 Nur
Is it still open?
Could u tell me exactly where’s the location of this bookshooe…. im confused :/
which one?
Bookshop*