Kuwait Book Store
After all the months my reading and blogging friends have been recommending the Kuwait Book Store, I finally got there.
I thought I was in heaven.
Another friend, with us, said she is planning a date night with her husband at the Kuwait Book Store – you can spend hours there, and you can top off the evening with an ice cream cone right outside the door.
This is the only place in Kuwait I have seen Jehan Rejab’s book about the Invasion of Kuwait. I found several other books by her, and by her husband. I found four books on Kuwait by Claudia Al-Rashoud, another of my favorite authors and Kuwait photographers. They have a great selection of books on Kuwait – the best I have seen. They have another couple books which feature or include the unique architectural elements in Kuwait, but not The History of Architecture in Old Kuwait City, the book I reviewed earlier. Some of these other books may be even better! 🙂
There were all kinds of books. Acres of books. Books, and a good selection of greeting cards, and pens, and children’s books. The Kuwait Book Store is huge.
The Kuwait Book Store is just inside the main entrance to the Al Muthanna Mall and Residence, across from the JW Marriott in downtown Kuwait. You go down the escalator, and you are there. I like this mall; it has upper end quality kind of goods; some really good shoe stores, many other great resources. I’m not a big fan of malls, but this mall is a very useful mall.
I only regret it took me so long to get there! What a find! I think a date night at the Kuwait Book Store will be in my future, too. I didn’t get to hit all the shops, just had a brief glance. Do you have any favorites or recommendations at Al Muthanna?
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i think you can check out q8books to its a very good tiny little bookshop where they sell and buy used books its really good, and the owners are really nice. they also have a website where they have a database of all the books available and you can also reserve the book and they will keep it for five days until you pick it up enjoy!!
oh and u can get their address in their website they also have a map 🙂
the website is q8books.com
Happy for you for your little discovery 😉
I thought you might like this http://www.patricksemaan.com/projektcyan/?p=909
Ahhh this bookstore brings back a lot of memories…my school used to give us book gift vouchers as part of their appraisal system. I still have a book i got called “The History of the World” about 22 years ago…and it’s still in perfect condition 😀 😀
Yeah Kuwait bookstore has a huge selection of books and they will always place an order for you if they don’t have what you are looking for…but their prices are also pretty steep. The bookstore that q8ya mentioned is an excellent used bookstore, though it’s much smaller than Kuwait Bookstore i always find myself spending more time there 😀 oh and Jacob (the store owner) is the sweetest bookstore owner i have ever met 😀
Another bookstore that brings back lots of childhood memories in Kuwait is Family Book Store in old Salmiya (though i’m not sure if they are still there)
opps btw, this is mirror polisher who used to be magical droplets ;p
What are those things you call “books”? Is it some ancient cult?
OMG God! That’s where I get my books and magazine back in my high school days. It’s been ages since I’ve been there. I’m so gonna check it and just reminisce and cry a river.
Glad you finally got there
Muthanna is a pleasant quiet mall
Like the photos too. Surprised no one said anything to you 😛
OMG i cant believe you didnt know about it!
lol i just assumed you knew otherwise i would have pestered you to go sooner 😛
I thought you knew about it, you can order any book ,they will get it to you. Bernina shop will open on the first floor.
you can also find our welovekuwait children’s activity books there ;P although our bookstore is in the same building (mezanine) we always make sure kuwait book shop in the basement have enough stock! thier loyal costumers have been coming for years (before i was born)! not to mention how sweet and helpful and nice the owners and the people who work there are! i love that place !
q8ya – Thank you for the great information. People have mentioned it before – Q8Books, and I will make it a point to find it next. I have some crazy friends who can help me.
You have to understand – to non-native Kuwaitis, some of the “addresses” can be daunting. Here is what the q8bookstore says on how to get there:
Although the location map is detailed, it is not unusual for people to get lost. Q8books is located within about 200 meters of Sheraton Hotel. It is in the same building (Al Salam Tower) where Giordano and RCBC (Money Exchange) is located.
It took me almost two years to find the Muthanna Complex! We still don’t know where the parking is. YOU may understand where RCBC and Giordano are, but it will take us time, and probably a Friday morning, to find them, and then the bookstore.
For non-Kuwait people, Kuwait doesn’t have a postal system that delivers to the homes, so addresses are funny – you say the area, and then the sector, and then the street, and then the number. The areas and sectors are not a grid, they are a maze, so finding things is mostly by landmark. And you can never say “it’s by the big mosque” because there are mosques everywhere, and many of them are fairly big. I’m usually pretty good, using directions and good old GoogleEarth but it still takes a while, and the very best way to find something is to have a friend take you there the first time, sometimes even a second time, until you figure it out. The Sheraton roundabout is easy, the rest . . . it’s not so easy!
I love it, Patrick, thank you for the reminder! They are very very cool!
Darya, Mirror Polisher, Magical Droplets – why am I not surprised that you would be a girl who would earn academic rewards like certificates to a great bookstore? 😉 I think it is such a great place. I also like the Jarir, but I rather like magazines that don’t have things all blotted out in black!
Whew! I was about to buy one of my favorite magazines, Veranda, when I realized I was about to spend about $20 on a MAGAZINE. I just couldn’t do it. Arrrrrggghhhhh!
Purg, sweetie, it’s hard to explain. You might call it a Kindle. People share ideas through this ancient and rare medium, and then we talk about our ideas. When you are mature enough (you will know it because you will be irresistably drawn to reading) you may join us.
Angelo – books and ice cream – it could only be better if there were also a coffee shop just outside the door! No room inside!
Jewaira – I looked for YOU there! Actually, one of the security guards saw me with my camera and maybe started to say something but . . . didn’t. 🙂 Good for him! The Kuwait Bookshop just got some great free publicity and numerous unsolicited endorsements!
Skunk, people had told me about it, but no one could tell me (non-Kuwaiti) how to find it! Now if you had given me directions, as you did to the Al Mirah (what a find!) it wouldn’t have taken me TWO years to find it! LLOOOLLLLL
Hayfa – I didn’t think to ask you! Silly me! That mall keeps getting better and better! 😉
We Love Kuwait – No! You are in the same complex? WOW! I will come see you next time we are there. Thank you for telling me – we love your products.
It’s by far the closest thing to a decent book store in Kuwait. I have been frequenting it for years (since middle school hehe!), once there was a black out and I got locked in the store among the towers and stacks of books, it was an awesome night!
Glad you finally found it 🙂
I spend hours in this place and not feel it 😀 truly a joy, also as qya said “8qbooks” i heard a lot about, my cousin highly recommends it,,,
Kuwait book store is a wonderful place to spend a day in, i go there every month 😀
Still confusd.
Kinano, what a great memory. When I read it, I laughed, my husband was also locked in a library; he had fallen asleep. He woke up scared though (he was like nine years old) but his parents found him and made the town librarian open the locked doors to let him out! You two have SO much in common. 😉
Q80ChillGirl – I will see you there! 🙂
Yes, Purg. Very very very bright people are often confused by the simplest things . . . .
lol ok here are the directions to q8books,… this ones tricky so do bear with me 😛 (this does include parking directions too)
from muthanna complex, you take the main road, fahad al salem street, back to the sheraton roundabout. but before the roundabout, you take a u-turn.
after u take the u-turn, on your right all hell will be breaking loose as pedestrians normally battle and dodge busses and vanettes here 😛 but not to worry its pretty normal,.. especially if you go on friday or sunday.
you’ll see a burgan bank i think, then a bunch of buildings selling crappy cheap stuff, then some nice gold shops, and then girodano is in the last building,… i do believe they have a big sign out front. ( this is all crammed into about 50 meters or so. )
anyway, you drive straight past all of that and take a right to get to the parking. after you take a right, you’ll see the entrance to the posh salhiya mall on your left. you can either go underground to the nicer more expensive parking lot under johnny rockets/hashi/caribou coffee,…. or you go straight and follow the road as it turns right, then take the 1st right to get to the cheaper parking in the crapy old mall. i forget the name.
but i think you’ll find the crappy parking/mall more interesting. once you park and get out you try and walk out to the main road you were just on, or ask anyone for giordano’s.
go on a friday or sunday and its like youre in bombay,… and they make pretty good shawarmas there 😛 and not to worry its pretty safe there as well since sheraton hotel guests tend to wander around there sometimes.
happy trails 😛
Here is the website q8bookshop, they sell second-hand books:
http://www.q8books.com/Q8B/eQ8home.asp
I know you will die laughing, Skunk, but I have never been in the Salhiya mall, either. It looks posh! I probably need to go there!
I love your directions, and so will all the other xpats reading this blog. Thank you for taking the time and trouble. I think I will wait a month or two for summertime, and do it then, when traffic is so greatly reduced. I can totally visualise the transportation place you are talking about, with buses and cabs pulling in and out with no regard to any other traffic :-0
Thank you, Hayfa! Missed you!
Do they have fiction books, like … Science-fiction?!
Sarah – they have a little bit of everything. some of the books will surprise and delight you, but if you really need something specific, you may well have to order it, but the good news is – you can order it. 🙂
[…] can also probably find it at the Kuwait Bookstore, that amazing store in the bottom of the Al Muthanna Mall, near the Sheraton Circle […]
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Hey, guys. Im selling the books that I bought for AP Literature. (Except for the chicken soup) Some of them are new and many of them are in okay state.
Chicken Soup for the college soul(NEW) – 2KD
Invisible MAn by Ralph Ellison – 2KD
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard- 1KD
(No fear shakesphere)Hamlet by Shakesphere- 0.5KD
The Remains of the Day(NEW) by Kazuo Ishiguro- 2KD
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte(NEW) – 1KD
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky – 1KD
As I lay Dying by William Faulkner – 2KD
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte – 1KD
An enemy of the people by Henrik Ibsen – 1KD
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (NEW) – 1KD
A Portrait of the artist as a young man – 1KD
Cry, the beloved country by Alan Paton (NEW)- 2KD
The ones that are marked as “NEW”, they are new because I only bought them but never even read them. If you are interested, please contact me through 65068198.
May I ask if you have book title:
Teach Yourself Visually Flash CS 3
by
SHERRY KINKOPH GUNTER
Teach Yourself Visually Photoshop CS 3
by
MIKE WOOLRIDGE
&
LINDA WOOLDRIDGE
and how much each cost?
LOL, Ria, you need to go to the Kuwait Book Store website!
“SPEAK KUWAITI”
I liked the idea of this new book “Speak Kuwaiti”, unlike any other book, this book has been compiled and designed to focus on the spoken Kuwaiti dialect in the easiest and most interactive way possible. I have many expatriate friends who often ask me “How can I speak Kuwaiti ?” or “How to say I’m hungry, tired, happy in Kuwait?” Well this book is the answer
The price is 3.600 K.D and can be found at Virgin, That Al Salasil, and Jarir bookshop, Kuwait Bookshop.
Zak
Thanks, Zak, sounds like a great recommendation for people coming to Kuwait.
We are very happy to reach with you as one of the foreign book importers in Seoul, Korea. we are very interest in your books now and would like to buy. we need a lot of your books. Please kindly advise to us the contacting information, email name who can accept our future processing orders. your kind appreciated attention to this propose will be highly appreciated with best wishes.
we need book list for ordering choice.
Could you send book list in form of excel including book title, author, publication year, price and subject.
In this time we’d like to purchase all kind of adult book like art, history, culture, literature, cook, woman etc.
we would choose 500-1000 title more, so we beg you send much more title as possible as you can. I’m looking forward to your kind answer mail.
Cordially your.
S.Y kim(MR.)
President interbook
Ojong-Ku Kogang-Dong 284
Bucheon, Gyeonggi-Do 421-800
Repubic of Korea
TEL : +82-010-9084-0305
FAX: + 82-32-677-8539
E.MAIL : paulree2@hanmail.net