The Dean

Reading is just one part of it - there are still plenty of people (particularly in Saudi) who don't even recognise the concept of time. Huge numbers there wouldn't even begin to understand what a clock face is telling them.

Boomhauer

I just find it very hard to believe the study's claimss .Surely they read more than a quater page a year; who is buying all the Khaleeji Arabic language newspapers then?

Norm_uk

Oryx Hotel...that's going about about four years methinks.

N.

Norm_uk

While the studies claims can be disputed it is a fact that the Arab world has low literacy rates and poor rates at which books are translated into Arabic from other languages.

Last time I was in Beijing I went to three different book stores (which were all busy) before finding one that had English books, and then it was a small section. When I asked I was told you can buy most foreign books in Chinese so no need to sell the English versions.

Go to a book store in the UAE and the Arabic section is usually a small island in a sea of English books, and the majority are religious and praise the leaders type of books.

That's a telling sign when book shops in your own country stock more foreign language books than your own language.

N.

Karlos The Jackal

It was Norm, the first time I came over here!

Jim Smith

There is a big one on Wangfunjin St(Sp?) in Central Beijing selling English books including most of the "classics"

Norm_uk

There are places to buy English books but my point was the Chinese don't even need to learn English in order to read foreign books because so much is translated into Chinese, just as we can read up on Lao Tze, Confucious, Mao, Deng, or whatever we like without learning a word of Mandarin. And our bookshops are not 80% foreign language like they are here.

Next time I'm in Beijing I'll be too busy stuffing my face and getting plastered to read anything civillised...

N.