What Are They Reading in Cairo?

I don't know, but it seemed like the best way to find out was to go downtown to Talat Harb Square and check out the booksellers.  Talat Harb is a brief stroll from Tahrir Square and a case could probably be made for why it was once the intellectual capital of the city.  We found this selection of books set up near Groppi on the square.  Linda is checking out the Arabic language version of Hillary Clinton's Hard Choices.



There is probably no better choice than the Groppi corner to conduct "man on the street" interviews on the topic of the day. The question was, "If you want to know if something is forbidden or allowed in Islam, which authority would you ask and believe? The Salafists or Al Azhar?"  We thought this was a very divisive question that should not be asked.  There are enough problems in Egypt without creating more. I don't know which station to watch to view the results.  Perhaps it is just a YouTube venture.


There are other books available in the neighborhood and I don't know how I got past this antique book shop without going in.  The minaret book is a pricy thing on Amazon (about $80) and I might have been able to drive a better bargain here with Cairo's flexible price system.  I'll have to check for it again next year.





Walking around the square, the fragrance coming from the bakery was overwhelming.  We stopped in to buy some bread items that made the perfect accompaniment this morning while editing photos and posting them to the blog. An "inside bakery" is not common in our neighborhood so it was worth buying bread just to see the inside. Where we live the bakery items are displayed on tables outside the building. To help protect from the ever-present dust/sand, all items are covered by plastic but not all bakeries provide this amenity.