World’s biggest book sale returns with 3m books

Imran Mojib, Special Correspondent

Big Bad Wolf Book Sale, the world’s biggest traveling book sale, returns to Dubai with a bigger collection of titles and a promise to make reading affordable by offering discounts ranging from 50 per cent to 80 per cent.

Big Bad Wolf Book Sale 2019, taking place in Dubai Studio City from Oct.10-20, will offer over three million books featuring over 10,000 titles including fiction, non-fiction and young adult novels, as well as a collection of children’s books.

First edition of the sale, held in Dubai from Oct.18-28, 2018, welcomed more than 150,000 visitors.

Andrew Yap, Founder of the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale, said that the traveling event is more than just a book sale, it is a reading advocacy organisation.

He said, “Reading develops our thought process; it gives us unlimited knowledge and keeps our minds active. We are committed to promoting reading in the community, and with that in mind, we return to Dubai again this year with the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale and three million books. We are confident that we will have books to cater to every taste, inspire people to fulfill their dreams, and empower them with knowledge by making books accessible to everyone.”

Andrew Yap said that it has been a landmark event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, since 2009. “Currently we are celebrating its 10th Anniversary with a series of book sales across the country. The Sale has also toured across cities abroad in Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Taiwan, the UAE, Korea, Myanmar, and Pakistan with no plans to stop in making reading affordable for readers around the world,” he said.

Yap said he had never expected to come to the Middle East, specially to Dubai, so soon. But they got support from the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation (MBRF).

MBRF’s publishing arm Qindeel will be participating in the sale for the second year in a row, following the great success of its first participation in the event last year, where it sold more than 70,000 books in Arabic from participating Arab publishing houses.

MBRF CEO Jamal Bin Huwaireb asserted that Qindeel is looking forward to making a strong impression in its second year of participating at the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale. He said that Qindeel will expand its participation. It will be presenting a collection of Arabic-language books from 24 local publishers and 18 international ones. The total number of books on offer is half a million, with 6,000 titles covering all sectors.