'My Book and me'

We finally made it out to see the new book centre/library in Al Khuwair, The directions in 'Y' were pretty good although upon reaching the destination (eventually) I realised it was in Al Khuwair tower, the block with the red writing that I see every time I'm on the highway. So a quick little detour around the streets eventually got us there. (I saw a new home furnishings place incidentally whilst driving around that area. I haven't been for a good, unplanned explore for ages; might have to put that on the to-do list!).

My Book and Me is on the first floor above the medical centre. The library was lovely. Really clean, clear and modern, a nice feeling as you walk in. There were some cute little knick-knacks around and I LOVED the inspirational wall (see photo below). The kids spotted the fish tank straight away. Although Bear made a beeline for the Jeremy Strong books within the first minute. We were the only ones at this time (late morning). There was a little play area with lots of children’s books, Arabic and English. A coffee shop (be careful on the timing…we wanted a cappuccino but the milk had not been sent up!). Plenty of older children’s books, a mix of non-fiction reference books and some fiction for purchase (I checked one price quickly and it was a lot more reasonable that Borders used to be).

I spy Einstein and Curie and Darwin(?). I feel I should recognise more!

 

 

We settled for half an hour, having a flick through a few books. Bear managed to read half a book in that time so we have to go back for her to finish it!

I asked for membership details and it was a lot more than I expected but it would depend on what you wanted to get out of it. There are three levels according to the services you would use.

1. The top level gives you 20% discount on purchases, 50% off courses (half have already been and gone in June so I’m hoping they will release a further schedule) and book loan of a week (I’m assuming 7 days…it doesn’t say).
2. The second level gives 10% discount on purchases, 35% discount on workshops and borrowing time of 3 days.
3. The third level is just a book loan for 3 days.

And you can get monthly or 6-monthly memberships for these levels. A daily pass for adults is 5 rials with internet usage and 3 rials for children. Family packages are 12 rials for 3-4 people and 22 rials for 5-8 people.

Day passes seemed more appealing to me as I don’t think we’d get the benefit of the workshops. However, if we planned well enough I’m sure we could find something that was of interest to the kids. Having said that, the lowest age the children’s workshops were open to was 7 years old. So nothing for Pops. Which is fine, Bear would like to do something on her own, I’m sure.

So yes, we’d go back as I know my own children love books and a library and decent bookshops are what we are lacking here in Muscat. They would happily sit for an hour and read, and so allowing me to read and have a coffee too!