I took a long walk through the exhibit hall this afternoon, the final day of the fair, to see if I’d missed anything on previous days. Boy, did I ever: with more than 800 exhibitors in attendance, it takes a concerted effort to see every stand. This afternoon, I was still stumbling upon some great […]

ADIBF 2010 is coming to a close in a few hours, but there’s still been a lot to see today: I just got back from a lively discussion with author Alia Yunis, whose first novel, The Night Counter, was published by Random House last summer. Born in the US to Palestinian and Lebanese parents, Yunis spent […]

Among the features of the past Fairs has been the inclusion of a demonstration kitchen run by the kindly people of the Gourmand Book Awards. It’s easily among the most internationally diverse forums at ADIBF. There’s the administrators — Bo and K.C., both Swedes, and the chefs: Chakall from Argentina/Portugal/Germany; Chef Wan, from Malaysia — […]

There are bigger one’s at the ADIBF — Jarir and the Abu Dhabi University Bookstore are two that come to mind — but the biggest single bookstore in the UAE is Kinokuniya at the Dubai Mall. This colossal store, which comes in at 68,000 sq.-ft. is three-times larger than so called “superstores” popular in the […]

“In the near future, Abu Dhabi will be the cultural center for the region,” was the main point that Jumaa Al Qubaisi, the Director of ADIBF, got across during a final round-up meeting about this year’s fair. 
This ambition reflects not only the success of the 2010 version of the Book Fair, and the prospects for next year, but takes into account all […]

Among the projects being spearheaded by ADACH and the new Abu Dhabi library is an effort to develop the first digitised font in the Diwani style. The font itself is being created by legendary Arabic calligrapher Mohammaed Mandi, who has been on hand at the Fair offering artistic, calligraphic interpretations of people’s names. Seated at […]