00:01It's a great way to discover, even if you're not from Qatar, that you're from different parts of the world,
00:07you will always have a way to connect with the content that we have here in One Book When Doha.
00:14Whether it's Jane Austen, Jalaluddin Rumi, Hans Christian Andersen, or Al Hariri of Basra,
00:20you'll be able to find their timeless classics right here, and perhaps in more than one language.
00:25The Doha International Book Fair has been cultivating a love for literature in Qatar for generations.
00:31But the story has only just begun.
00:34Spread across a 29,000-square-meter space, the book fair has become the marquee event for not only literature
00:41lovers,
00:41but also art enthusiasts as well as curious and creative minds.
00:46Making its public debut is this art exhibition by Jawahar al-Sayed, titled The Journey.
00:51The gallery tells the story of Qatar's transformation from a humble pearl diving port to a global oil and gas
00:58powerhouse.
00:59Every year, the booths of participating organizations are designed to engage readers beyond prose and paper.
01:06Qatar Reads, the country's flagship national reading initiative,
01:10has brought the pages of a classic Arabic book collection to life through its One Book, One Doha program.
01:17We consider reading to be just the first step in our journey.
01:21Here is where the creatives in the community are encouraged to read, absorb the story, and then create their own.
01:29Among them is The Carpet by Qatari artist Wadha al-Adba,
01:32where she reimagined a scene from one of the illuminated manuscripts of Maqamat al-Hariri.
01:37It's a great way to discover, even if you're not from Qatar, that you're from different parts of the world,
01:42you will always have a way to connect with the content that we have here in One Book, One Doha.
01:47Also making a debut is the Ministry of Culture's new encyclopedic initiative called This is Qatar.
01:54The collection consists of six main segments telling the nation's story from its historical roots
02:00to its cultural heritage, wildlife biodiversity, and societal development.
02:05Launched in 1972, the Doha International Book Fair started with just 20 publishing houses.
02:11Today, that number has grown to more than 500, with up to 50 participating countries every year.
02:18As one of Qatar's pioneering retailers, Samarkand Books believes that the growth also reflects the country's evolving demographics.
02:25When we launched, we mainly focused on Arabic books, but today, English books are also on the rise.
02:33Our growth reflects Qatar's maturation as a cosmopolitan society, valuing education and cultural exchange.
02:41The rapid digitalization of the publishing industry has fueled the growth of audiobooks and e-books,
02:48which has led to the demise of many legacy bookstores.
02:51But in Qatar, the trend has been quite the opposite.
02:55Reports of bookstores' death is kind of exaggerated because we've seen a surge in bookstores between 2024 and 2025.
03:05So I don't think that AI and digital platforms could replicate books because it doesn't capture the essence of the
03:14book itself.
03:15And in Samarkand, we are trying to build the community, and our strategy is to continue to build for them
03:23and provide the books that they fall in love with.
03:26But elsewhere, digitalization is an inevitable trend that the Qatar National Library is choosing to embrace.
03:33One of the activations is called Literary Twin, where people can actually take a quiz, answer some questions, and then
03:40the results, they're going to have their twin when it comes to authors.
03:44We do have a virtual tour of the library where people can step into the Qatar National Library and get
03:51to see our facilities and collections as well.
03:53We do have a digitization center where we digitize old books and also new books to make them available online
04:01for people to access them.
04:02Back at Qatar Reads, the One Book One Doha program aims to stimulate the minds of the young and old
04:09beyond the country's borders through a partnership with the Years of Culture Initiative.
04:15Specifically with Years of Culture, we've had five, and as a result, we've also translated our One Book One Doha
04:21books into four other languages, including Spanish, French, Bahasa for Indonesia, and German.
04:29And so all of these books have sort of increased the reach of our programming, and they created a space
04:35for cultural exchange.
04:36Because whichever partner country we have with Years of Culture, we also feature that as a theme in the family
04:41reading program here in Doha.
04:43As the chapters of Qatar's story continue to be written, the Doha International Book Fair is where you'll find the
04:49authors, poets, and artists who will broaden the country's intellectual horizon one book at a time.
04:59For more information, visit www.fema.org.
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