Cairo Book Fair

I’ve not been altogether sure what to make of this — beyond the fact that it makes lucubration about how few US and UK teenagers are reading books look pretty ridiculous — but The New Publishing Standard brings us the news that “The 57th Cairo International Book Fair closed on 3 February with 6,200,849 tickets scanned – a figure that dwarfs every rival and redraws the map of global publishing reach.” The Fair’s official website informed us that “During the fair, the ‘A Million Books’ initiative will be launched, aiming to gift one million books to Egyptian ministries, universities, and professional syndicates.” Let us try not to forget that literary culture is a world-wide phenomenon, not an Anglophone invention. See also Book fairs.