Plumbing flushes away bookworm haven

      
    
 
Yomna Kamel

 
FINDING BOOKS ON AL FAGALA STREET HAS BEEN GETTING HARDER OVER THE YEARS. AL FAGALA STREET, JUST OFF OF RAMSES SQUARE, HAS BEEN AN IDEAL LOCATION FOR PUBLISHING ENTREPRENEURS TO REALIZE THEIR DREAMS OVER THE YEARS. HOWEVER, DESPITE THE FACT THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS PASSING THROUGH THE SQUARE ON A DAILY BASIS, THE STREET'S PUBLISHING AND BOOK SELLING INDUSTRY HAS BEEN ON THE WANE FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS.
 

Unfortunately, a few steps toward the other end of the street reveals an invasion of ceramic and plumbing supply shops which are slowly changing the street's character.

"Unlike in the 1960s when bookstores and publishing houses were lined up on both sides of the street, the economic changes of the 1970s brought new industries to the street, mainly ceramic and plumping supplies," said Muhammad Abdel Raboh who has been living on the street since 1957. "They simply occupied half of the street buying up a good number of bookstores and stationary shops."

One of the book businesses that has withstood the test of time is Al Sahar founded in 1934.

The founder of the business, Abdel Hamid Goda Al Sahar, chose Al Fagala to locate his shop because it is near the railroad station, which made it ideal for distributing books around the country.

"Just as we, book publishers, liked Al Fagala because of its strategic location near the station, the owners of ceramic and plumping supplies shops moved to the area to be close to the main means transporting their stuff," says Salah Al Din Al Sahar, son of the founder and current owner of Al Sahar Publishing houses.

With a number of long established publishing houses and bookstores that have histories dating back to the early 20th century, the owners do not want to give up the profession they inherited from their fathers. For some, the biggest challenge to their livelihood is not encroaching ceramic and plumbing stores but what they see as a societal change.

Al Sahar thinks the central factor impacting his work is that the new generation is not interested any more in reading but rather watching television. For him, it was the Ministry of Education that played a role in creating such a generation.

"In the past, we used to have free reading groups where students had the chance to choose from any selection of books suggested by their school, but at the present time, the ministry makes it an obligation for them to read a book for each educational stage. By doing this, it killed their interest in reading for pleasure," he says.

As a result, some publishing houses redirected their activities from publishing novels to school textbooks, a much more commercial type of activity. Today there are only three publishing houses that have preserved the nature of their activities. These are Nahdet Misr, Dar Al Maarif and Al Muasasa Al Arabiya.

It seems that while some owners of Al Fagala's book shops are not optimistic about the future of the street as a center for book publishing, some writers see a more optimistic future.

Lamay Al Mutiyi, a columnist for the opposition daily Al Wafd lived in Al Fagala between 1946 and 1953 says that the changes taking place on the street are part of the developments happening all over the country. Still, he notes that some of the older publishing houses and stores on the street are still going strong.

"Ceramic and plumping supply shops moved onto the street, but they replaced only the small shops. The big publishing houses and bookstores are still operating and some of them have established new print shops," he says.

Al Mutiyi thinks Al Fagala's reputation as a center for book publishing houses and bookstores will not fade away.