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Book-lovers Noor and Nejoud are hoping to turn a new page in Bahrain’s literary community with their open-air reading spaces.
‘The People – A Mindful Space’ is an initiative started by Bahrainis Noor Benshams and Nejoud Alsharqawi. They aim to make reading a part of people’s daily routines by creating attractive outdoor spaces – with comfortable bean bags and a diverse selection of books set against beautiful backdrops like the sea.
“Our goal is to create a welcoming environment to give people, who may not be avid readers, a space where they can develop reading into a habit,” 24-year-old Noor, who works as a marketing and events specialist at Water Garden City, told GulfWeekly.
“Both of us love reading somewhere by the sea. So our two main requirements for reading spaces are that they should be outdoors near the coast with a lot of footfall nearby to attract lots of visitors.
“We want the spaces to be easy to discover when someone is, say, on a walk, or exploring an area as opposed to a place that people have to travel to, just to read. We want to integrate these spaces into people’s lives so that reading becomes part of their routine.”
Started just under a month ago, the not-for-profit initiative has already garnered huge support with almost 400 books donated by the community. Al Doshag’s Noora Bucheeri has agreed to sponsor bean bags for the space while IKEA has committed to providing furniture. Water Garden City is set to host the first reading space next month.
Bahraini author Bader Mohamed Alsadeqi, who has published The Chosen Rainheart and Dark Nature this year seems keen about the initiative, adding: “I think it is important to have book clubs and other reading communities. I think it would also be very important to have proper traditional publishing companies in Bahrain, or anywhere in the Gulf region.”
Noor and Nejoud are scoping out more locations and meeting with property owners with a goal of opening several reading spaces simultaneously.
They plan to have the spaces open every day from 11am to 10pm, tentatively, with lamps providing light after dark, so night owls don’t have to repeatedly cast ‘Lumos’ spells under the blanket of darkness or fidget with their phone flashlight.
They also hope to have up to five volunteers on site to help people pick out books and sanitise them after use.
Mirium Al Zeera (@booksnessi on Instagram) has volunteered to curate books from amongst the donations, drawing on her experience building a library at Higher Grounds Coffee.
“We are so thankful to the community for the books donated so far and Mirium is helping us curate them to put together a diverse library,” Noor explained.
““The books that we are not able to include in our library will be donated to the Farha initiative to sell and donate 100 per cent of the proceeds to charity.”
To play host to the books in their library, Noor and Nejoud will be using a modular shelf design based on advice by Rawan Jahroomi.
The 70cm-tall design allows them to move books around easily to deal with inclement weather, while also giving them the option to stack the bookshelves during pleasant days.
To protect the books against the elements, the shelves will have a clear door.
“We wanted to create a space, somewhere between a library and the ambience of a coffee shop, with reading as its core,” said 25-year-old Nejoud, who works as a listing specialist at the Bahrain Bourse.
“We know that avid readers will do so in whatever environment they are in, but with these spaces, we hope to create memorable moments in reading for others as well, perhaps with their old friends or with new ones they meet at the space.”
The duo are looking for books and volunteers to support their cause. Logistics, cataloguing and on-site volunteers will help make the space a living, breathing and reading ecosystem.
At the moment, logistics volunteers will be tasked with collecting books, while cataloguing volunteers will organise them into a database. Once the spaces open, onsite volunteers will maintain the space as well as sanitise and ‘quarantine’ books for up to five days in line with Covid-19 guidelines.
For more details, follow @thepeople.bh on Instagram.
