Book lovers in Cairo: bookshops, the Book Fair and the friends a shared book brings

Salma had always been the reader in her family. As a girl she borrowed novels from her aunt’s shelves and returned them with the corners folded, and at university she spent more time in bookshops than in the cafeteria. Then work began, the commute through Cairo traffic swallowed her evenings, and reading became something she did alone, ten pages before sleep. She still loved books. She just had nobody to talk to about them.

One Friday morning she was standing in front of the Arabic fiction shelf at Diwan in Zamalek, trying to choose between two novels, when the woman beside her said, without looking up, “Take the thinner one. The other one is beautiful, but the ending will make you angry.” They laughed, talked for ten minutes about endings that had made them angry, and swapped numbers almost as an afterthought. Three weeks later the two of them, plus a colleague of the other woman and a friend from Salma’s old university, met in a café in Heliopolis to talk about the thinner novel. That was a year ago. The four have not missed a month since.

A city that has always read

Cairo has a long and proud relationship with books. For generations it has been one of the great publishing centres of the Arab world, home to famous writers, old printing houses and the second-hand book stalls that readers still hunt through for out-of-print treasures. Ask almost any Cairene over forty and they will tell you about the first novel that changed them, often bought cheaply and read until the spine broke.

That tradition has not disappeared; it has simply changed shape. Alongside the old stalls there are now modern bookshops where people come to browse, sit with a coffee and attend talks and signings. Diwan, which began in Zamalek and became one of the best-known bookshop names in Egypt, is a good example: a place where you can spend an hour among Arabic and English titles and leave having overheard three conversations you wanted to join. Bookshops like these are among the few places in a busy city where it feels natural to speak to a stranger. The book in your hand is already an introduction.

The Book Fair, every winter

Then there is the Cairo International Book Fair, held each winter and one of the oldest and largest book fairs in the region. For many families it is an annual outing: parents with children choosing their first books, students carrying heavy bags of textbooks, readers moving slowly from one publisher’s stand to the next. The crowds can be enormous, especially at weekends, and that is part of the charm. For a few weeks, the whole city seems to remember how much it loves to read.

The Book Fair is also a wonderful place to go with friends, and an even better reason to make new ones. Going alone, you see the stands. Going with two or three fellow readers, you see what they notice, you hear why they cannot leave without a certain poet, and you end the day comparing what everyone bought over tea. Some reading circles in Cairo began exactly that way: a small group who went to the fair together, enjoyed it more than they expected and decided they did not want to wait a whole year to do it again.

If you plan to go as a group, it helps to agree on a meeting point, go early on a weekday if you can, and give everyone a little time alone among the stands before meeting up again. Readers like to browse at their own pace. The reunion afterwards, with bags full and opinions ready, is where the friendship happens.

Why a book makes strangers into friends

Most new friendships stall at the same place: after the polite questions about work and where you live, there is nothing left to say. A book removes that problem. Everyone at the table has spent several evenings in the same story, met the same characters and reached the same last page. You do not need to invent a topic; you arrive with one.

And a good book takes the conversation deeper than small talk ever could. Discussing why a character made a terrible choice, or why a memoir moved you, means sharing a little of how you see the world. People reveal what they value, what frightens them and what makes them laugh, all without being asked directly. After a few months of this, the members of a reading circle know each other in a way that colleagues of ten years often do not.

There is a gentleness to it too. Some people find it hard to talk about themselves in a new group. Talking about a book is easier. A quiet member can start by saying which scene stayed with her, and over time, those small comments grow into real conversation. A reading circle gives shy people a safe door into a group.

How a small reading circle works

Salma’s circle follows a simple pattern that many groups in Cairo will recognise. They meet once a month, on the same evening, in a café that is easy to reach and quiet enough to hear each other. Members take turns choosing the next book, and the person who chose it opens the discussion. They try to alternate between Arabic and English titles, between novels and non-fiction, so that nobody feels the circle belongs to one taste.

Size matters. Four to eight people is ideal. Fewer, and one absence leaves the evening thin. More, and the quieter members disappear. Small groups also make it easier to find a table in a busy café and to keep the conversation as one shared discussion rather than three separate chats.

A gentle host helps, not a teacher but simply someone who asks the first question, makes room for those who have not spoken and moves things on when one topic has been exhausted. Simple questions work best: which moment surprised you? Who did you sympathise with? Would you recommend it to your mother, and why not?

It is wise to choose books with respect for everyone at the table. Members come from different backgrounds and hold different beliefs, and a circle works best when all of them feel at ease. There are countless books that spark deep conversation without making anyone uncomfortable, from the classics of Arabic literature to history, travel writing and well-told memoirs.

And it is perfectly fine if not everyone finishes. Salma’s group has a rule: come anyway. The member who read half the book still has opinions, and sometimes the best discussions are about why someone gave up.

When the book becomes the excuse

The most important part of a reading circle is often the last half hour, after the book has been discussed. Someone mentions a new job. Someone else is looking for an apartment and asks if anyone knows Maadi. Another member’s mother is unwell, and the group quietly makes sure she is not alone that month. The book brought them together, but the friendship lives in those moments.

Over time the circle builds its own small history: the novel everyone argued about until the café closed, the one that made two members cry, the poetry collection nobody finished but everyone still quotes. These shared memories are what make a group feel like yours, and why your chair feels kept for you even when you miss a month.

Where TruFriend fits

If you love books but have nobody to share them with, TruFriend can help you find your people. It is a free platform for friendship only, for grown-ups aged 18 and over, and it is now open in Cairo, as well as in Dubai, Riyadh and Kuwait City. Tru, our assistant, learns what you like to read, which part of the city suits you and when you are usually free, then introduces you to a few compatible people nearby, with the reasons you might get along. A conversation only opens when both of you say yes, and every plan happens in a public place such as a café or bookshop.

The Book lovers circle brings together people who would rather talk about a novel than about the traffic, and the Coffee and conversation circle is there for the weeks between books. Groups stay small, from three to ten people, so the same faces return each month and the conversation can grow.

Salma still thinks about that Friday morning at Diwan, and how close she came to choosing a book in silence and going home. If you would like friends to share your next book with, join TruFriend: it takes a minute.

Don’t just read about it

Join a circle of people in Cairo who enjoy the same things. Members already on TruFriend can join from the app or suggest a plan in any chat.