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Ezbekiyyah used book market in Cairo
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Book stacks at Ezbekiyyah
Subway commuters squeeze through the narrow walkways that lead out from the subway stairwells and past the impromptu street seller stalls. Wristwatches, underwear and key chains carved from camel bone all compete for attention. The more ambitious of the hawkers call out prices and dangle their products as potential consumers walk briskly by. Arabic pop music from one kiosk competes with Umm Koulthum classics echoing from another. Children selling “asalayah”, a caramelized sugar candy laugh with each other as they do their own people watching.
All this hustle and bustle is taking place along the periphery of a small collection of quiet alleys that make up the Ezbekiyyah used book market. Actually, the quiet is not immediately noticed. It is only once the explorer becomes immersed in the stacks that the din fades and life’s proverbial remote is clicked on ‘pause”. While the individual stalls are certainly too small to get physically lost in, one’s mind most definitely travels far through the musty pages and cracking covers.
Mixed in, of course, are computer manuals, comic books and National Geographics. A few of the shop owners specialize in particular genres or time frames. But for the most part, it’s a free-for-all: outdated medical journals, cheesy romance novels, classical literature, travelogues from the 1800s, school textbooks, children’s stories, gardening manuals, all piled together with no rhyme or reason to their placement.
To go with the objective of finding a particular text is missing the point. This space is made for rummaging. Treasures are to be found if the mind is open. Shop owners are unusually low-key and seem to truly enjoy the laidback visitor. When ready to depart, one re-enters the chaos of pedestrian foot-traffic as if emerging from a cocoon.
There are bargains to be had amongst the whole of the souk, whether it be in the book stalls or from the spontaneous sidewalk salesmen. A 10 minute walk from the market could bring you to the tables of Café Riche, once the haunt of Cairo’s theater crowd but now a wonderful spot to take in a cool drink while digging into that great book you just found!
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