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00:00 Here is the Qibla of those who are looking for reading.
00:03 Here is the Cairo International Book Fair in its 55th edition.
00:07 Thousands of books are on display and millions of visitors are looking for buying books at reasonable prices.
00:14 But the book in Egypt has not been able to escape the wave of rising prices that have been going on for a long time.
00:26 The book fair, which is one of the largest book fairs in the Middle East,
00:30 opened its doors to visitors in Egypt for two weeks.
00:34 During this time, about 5 million visitors from young people, educated people and readers were able to come
00:40 in spite of the variety of books on display in various fields and languages.
00:45 The smell of the paper book is back at this year's fair, despite the intense competition with the e-book.
00:53 I like coming to the book fair because I find books that I like.
00:57 There are not all the books you want. Here you can find anything you want.
01:03 The book fair is unique because all the books are available, and there is diversity and all the ideas.
01:08 There is political, religious, social, and narrative. There is a lot of diversity in old and new things.
01:14 I personally don't like e-books. I like paper books better and they have more value.
01:20 I like paper books because they are healthier.
01:23 For example, if I turn off the screen, I will be exposed to the screen and I will be more exposed to the screen.
01:28 If I find a book that has value, I want to invest in it and be able to share it with others.
01:33 This is a kind of investment that I personally and others also benefit from.
01:39 But the wind of inflation that moved the prices of everything in Egypt did not exclude the paper book.
01:45 The prices of books rose significantly, affecting the cost of publishing them.
01:50 Starting with the prices of paper books, printing and publishing costs, and so on,
01:54 this may affect some people's opinion on the size of the book sales in this year's edition.
02:00 This is a real problem in general in the whole publishing industry, the rise in the prices of paper books and the requirements for operation.
02:07 But we are doing our best to deliver the information that our readers want to read in the limited capacity and cost.
02:18 The number of readers has increased, but of course, everyone who used to buy a thousand, now buys 800,
02:24 and who used to buy 800, now buys 600, because of the economic circumstances.
02:28 The International Cairo Book Fair, which launched its first edition in 1969, was able to attract more than 1,200 copies of the book in its 55th edition,
02:40 and about 5,000 publishers from 70 countries, to become a destination for publishers and readers from all over the world.
02:48 Yasin Al-Juhari, CNBC, Al-Qahira
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