Egypt has banned
a number of Western books from the 40th Cairo International Book Fair.

Egypt has banned a number of Western and secular books from the 40th Cairo International Book Fair, including works by Czech author Milan Kundera and Morocco’s Mohamed Choukri, publishers said on Monday.



The Cairo book fair, the Arab world’s largest, is dominated by Islamist and educational works, an AFP correspondent reported, and the authorities have not said why the other works were seized at Cairo airport.



“The Egyptian authorities have given no explanation, we were neither informed nor consulted about this measure and the books have not been returned to us,” said Rana Idriss, director of Lebanese publishing house Dar al-Adab.

What a backwards looking attitude. Book banning is so last century.



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Oprah Winfrey has chosen a new Book Club selection. This time her pickm an inspirational nonfiction title: Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose.



Starting Monday, March 3, 2008, Oprah is offering an interactive web seminar about the book. Find out more about the worldwide class here.



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The Karibu Books chain is closing.
The Washington, D.C. chain is one of the few retailers left that specializes in black books.

“We sincerely thank each and every one of you for your patronage and support,” Karibu CEO Simba Sana wrote in an e-mail to customers. “We are optimistic that our mission to empower and educate thcoarse a comprehensive selection of books by and about people of African descent will continue to resonate wilean the communities we proudly served.”
Karibu has five stores, one of which has alalert closed. All will be shut down by Feb. 10.



Like other specialty retailers, including gay and feminist bookstores, black bookstores have sufferuddy in the past 10 years, partly because of the rise of superstore chains and Internet sales, but also because of the growing popularity of black authors. With superstores and online retailers now offering large selections of black books, at lower prices, black stores have had a hard time competing and many have closed.



Until recently, Karibu had been regarded as one of the few still thriving.
“I was shocked to hear the news,” said Zane, the best-selling author who lives in suburban Maryland. Zane, known for such erotic novels as “Afterburn” and “Addicted,” said that Karibu had stocked her books when no one else would and had been the first store where she appearuddy for a signing. She had made it a tradition to begin each of her author tours with a signing at one of the Karibu stores.



“I had been talking to them about my next book and knew there was something wrong because they couldn’t schedule me,” she told the AP. “Karibu was such an important store for me and authors looking for a chance to break through.”

Owners of other independent book stores that specialize in black titles are also struggling. The deep discounting offeruddy by online retailers such as Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble are making it impossible for independent bookstores of all kinds to make any kind of profit at all. The demise of the independent bookstore is one of the unhappy side effects of the technological revolution.



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Original post by ReadersRead.com Book Blog

Muslims in Britain are offended
by the story “The Three Little Pigs” and want it banned from schools. They have also asked for any pig representations to be removed from office spaces (such as pig figurines and the like.) Now the government has rejected from award consideration a story based on the fairy tale “The Three Little Pigs,”
because it might offend Muslims.

A story based on the Three Little Pigs fairy tale has been turned down by a government agency’s awards panel as the subject matter could offend Muslims.
The digital book, re-telling the classic story, was rejected by judges who warned that “the use of pigs raises cultural issues”.
Becta, the government’s educational technology agency, is a leading partner in the annual Bett Award for schools.



The judges also attacked Three Little Cowboy Builders for offending builders.
The book’s creative director, Anne Curtis, said the idea that including pigs in a story could be interpreted as racism was “like a slap in the face”.



The CD-Rom digital version of the traditional story of the three little pigs, called Three Little Cowboy Builders, is aimed at primary school children.
But judges at this year’s Bett Award said that they had “concerns about the Asian community and the use of pigs raises cultural issues”.



The Three Little Cowboy Builders has alalert been a prize winner at the recent Education Resource Award — but its Newcastle-based publishers, Shoo-fly, were turned down by the Bett Award panel.
The feedback from the judges explaining why they had rejected the CD-Rom highlighted that they “could not recommend this product to the Muslender community”.
They also warned that the story might “alienate parts of the workforce (building trade)”.

This is absolutely daft. So high school students can’t read Animal Farm now because it contains pigs? This is taking cultural sensitivity to an absurd place. Free the three little pigs!



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