Besides nature and long days outdoors, one of the things we miss most while living in Kuwait is hanging out in libraries and bookstores. Back home in Canada, Miss G and I visited our local library weekly. We’d make a morning of it, curling up to read several books before selecting 25 or so to take home. She’d sign them out at the check-out computer herself using her very own library card and then we’d do it all again the next week. We loved our library routine. On top of that, many rainy mornings were spent visiting our local bookstores. We’d browse, play, read books, and then pick one or two favourites to take home to add to our collection – a pretty fine way to spend our soggy days, I’d say. Here in Kuwait it’s not quite the same. While there are {some} bookstores and small libraries, most are filled primarily with Arabic books {rightfully so} and the English books that do exist are often of the cheap, generic variety. There is, however, Q8books, a very cool little used bookshop we finally made time to find and this afternoon.
While finding small hole-in-the-wall shops in the city or Salmiya sort of overwhelms me, finding Q8books was much easier than anticipated. It’s in Bayt Lothan, which is right next door to Marina Mall. Basically, if you’re driving along Arabian Gulf Street in Salmiya, you get into the very right lane that leads to the underground car park in front of Marina Mall, follow the lane around the righthand corner, and Bayt Lothan will be directly on your left. Easy peasey.
There’s not much for signage, but if you look closely, you’ll see a small blue sign mounted directly on the building that says ‘Q8books’.
Upon walking in, we were greeted by a super enthusiastic staff, offered ice cream from the KDD cart parked just outside the entrance, and given a quick rundown of the sale they had on {all new children’s books were half price}.
The shop was just as you’d imagine a used bookshop at home – cozy, with books organized by category and stacked floor to ceiling.
They also had multiple cozy reading spots that encourage visitors to settle in with a book or two, which I just loved {and Miss G took full advantage of}.
Our favourite, hands down, was the bean bag area in the middle of the shop. Grae retrieved book after book and had us read them to her while snuggled up together as a family.
In addition to a large stack of new children’s books, we found this used one – If You Take A Mouse to the Movies – which Miss G just loved but did not yet own. Now I’m not sure how much other used books cost, but this one was a huge score at 250 fils! We left the shop with a big reusable bag filled with books, a happy munchkin, and a brand new place to visit regularly in Kuwait. Yay for that.
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Hi Jen!
Ooooh, how we share your longing for bookstores and libraries here!!! If you haven’t already, Better Books in Salmiya (though v easy to find) is worth checking out, it has a great children’s section!