Virgin Megastore cites leading role in Saudi book culture

VIRGIN Megastore has established a major presence at the 2nd Jeddah International Book Fair held under the patronage of Makkah Emir Prince Khalid Al-Faisal. The Fair has a 98 sqm booth holding some 15,000 books from major publishers around the world. After being the top bookseller at last year’s inaugural event, Virgin Megastore is enjoying similar success this year, selling some 1,500 books daily at the Fair. The 10day book fair concluded “This was a fantastic opportunity not only for us but for the entire book industry, not to mention for readers themselves,” said Mohammed Ramadan, General Manager of Virgin Megastore. “It is a landmark cultural event that serves to promote the very important activity of reading, both in search of knowledge and for pure pleasure. We are very proud to be have participated and we are very proud to be one of the Kingdom’s leading booksellers.” Virgin Megastore’s 15,000 books on display at the Fair were divided into four categories – Kids, Novels, Business, and Manga & Comics – and comprised a mix of works in Arabic and English. They came from such world-renowned publishers as Penguin Books, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, and Parragon among many others. In addition to Virgin Megastore, some 450 publishers from 27 countries registered to participate in this year’s event, which occupied 21,500 sqm in South Obhur. More than one million titles were on display, and a wide variety of seminars, workshops, poetry readings and story-telling sessions were held in connection with the Fair. Also, not only did participants have the opportunity to peruse a huge selection of titles, they also had the opportunity to meet with many writers. A total of 221 authors, including 106 female authors, were be on hand to sign their latest works. The Jeddah Book Fair is one of Jeddah’s premier cultural events and is attracted some 70,000 visitors a day with that number rising to as many as 100,000 a day on the weekends. — SG