Purchasing Books - Magrudy's Books, Dubai, U.A.E

For the past little while, at Jo's suggestion (although she now sort of regrets it), I've been merrily going through our bookshelves and updating all my various book lists and in my database, adding a location where the books are shelved. But more on that in a future Blog. The reason I mention this is because as I've been going through my lists, I've come across the name of a bookstore where I spent a few happy moments while I was in Dubai back in 2005.

The store is Magrudy's and I must say that of the two or three book stores that I did buy books at while I was there, this was my favourite. I've been trying to find the specific one that I used to shop at, but it's been difficult even to find the shopping mall as in the intervening years, the face of Dubai seems to have changed drastically.

After much perseverance and a bit of luck, I finally found the shopping mall that I frequented the most. It was a nice mall, the Deira City Center, with lots of interesting, high end shops and luckily, as well, a cinema. They had the most comfortable seats and a great sound system. I went to a few movies during my stay in Dubai, Flight of the Phoenix, Kingdom of Heaven, and Hostage, to name some.

But I'm digressing. My favourite way to spend some time off was to catch the bus down to the Deira City Center and arrive about an hour before a movie and head to Magrudy's to look at books until the movie started. Conveniently, they were both on the same floor, the best of both worlds.

At the time I was very much into Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books and Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency so I was able to keep up with them while there. It was so nice being in a strange country and having something so familiar to make the time pass more quickly.

Unfortunately, my search for Magrudy's store in the Deira City Center seems to show that it was replaced with a Borders.  However, the store otherwise looks very similar. I hope the continued economic downturn doesn't mean that there is no longer a book store in the mall. A good book store is always needed.




Next time I plan to let you know about bit more about my book lists and how my organizing and list making is progressing.. Lucky you!

Keep on reading and buying books!