“Cultural Bookstore”
This is supposed to be a funny cartoon I know, but sadly it is a scene I have actually seen before my eyes. A bookstore selling mobiles. Actually I’ve seen places that sell household appliances and even jewelry stores, which sell mobile phones too.
But it’s particularly sad to see a bookstore do it. I suppose Hajjaj is actually sending the message that our culture has now become all about cell phones. Either because that’s the fate of a society where all it’s citizens carry cell phones but of which practically none carry books, or perhaps because this is the only thing that sells these days. Phones, not books.
Let that thought sink in for a moment: our culture is now dominated by phones and not books.
Phones; not books.
To be fair, many bookstores have been opening in the country over the last 3 years or so. Though I have to wonder if any of them can actually survive on profits made from selling books. In turn this begs the question, will all our cultural places have to sell cell phones to survive the Digital Culture?
Book stores live on students (College students in particular) like myself… They double the profit on a book so they can live in peace and we die of poverty
Eyad, thanks for posting. I think you might be right. Most of the book buyers seem to be students and rarely is it out of an interest to read but out of necessity for a course. The prices are very high, basically exactly double the amount i pay for books here and i still look for the cheapest deals like everyone else, still wait for the sales.
Maybe bookstores should be funded by a cultural fund to make it easier for people to afford books. Especially students