Probably one of the largest book stores in the world covering 42,000 square feet space distributed in three stories and having 200,000 titles on display and having a stock of over four million books in five warehouses, Saeed Book has been an attraction to the visitors of Islamabad for some years now.
The current owner is crumbling under immense financial pressure and is thinking about a major downsizing. They have already closed their outlet in Peshawar and some other cities. Now a downsizing in Islamabad is on the table.
Nnnooooo … we are still buying books from there … hate it that there are hundreds of restaurants and cafes and one hardly gets to see libraries! And the best book store in town is not in demand anymore??Saeed book bank is Islamabad’s great great asset ..don’t let it go please https://t.co/sm0LdoQS7L
— purani meena (@PuraniMeena) October 12, 2019
The news is quite sad because nations who are known as developed nations made it possible only by reading books. Pakistan is amongst the developing countries and in this era of science and technology, reading is much more important.
Now what is the actual problem regarding reading books in Pakistan? Mr. Ahmad Saeed, the owner of Saeed Book Bank replies to this question in a very comprehensive manner in the video below. He tells that people are willing to buy mobile phone worth 100,000 PKR but when it comes to the books, they are not willing to buy original copy of the book. Rather they go for the pirated copies or the photocopy of the book. In the video, Mr. Ahmad Saeed rightly says that our younger generation is not going to flourish if they don’t make friends with the books.
E-books and pirated copies are the major reason behind Pakistani writers not getting paid well and thus choosing career as a writer is quite hard in Pakistan.
