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   Issue 35   Note from the Editor  
View World Tourism Exhibitions

A book for the road: Can culture and society survive the internet age?

Two of the worries that have been created by the information technology and electronic communication age are the threat to books and the art of conversation. The worry about conversations is easy to refute. People are spending more time on their mobile phones talking to each other. They are also frequenting cafes more and more. They are making these places venues for meetings and socialising. The internet is also working towards making communication across the world easier and encouraging this trend.

The concern about books is also unfounded. We have had the internet with us now for about two decades and we are witnessing a growth in the book industry. There are more, better and larger bookshops than in the past. There is also a huge number of new and old titles produced, even in fields which are not for the general reader, such as literary theory and philosophy.

Some of the big bookshops have started to open café areas where people could take books from the shelf and read them in the shop, or read the papers. They are also meeting places for discussion and some of them organise discussion groups to talk about books, literature, psychology and philosophy.

Last summer, we stopped on our way back from the highlands in Scotland, at Inverness. There was a café by the station. It is called “The Reading Worm”. The café provides food, tea, coffee, books and newspapers for its customers. You can read the books, buy or exchange them for the books you don’t want. It works fine for the locals and the tourists. They can exchange the books they carry with them for different ones. It is a very interesting concept and the owners, young French adventurers, also had a book for the customers to write their comments. I was thoroughly impressed.

You will also notice that many of the tourist destinations cities have second hand bookshops. They are full of novels they get from tourists and you can pick up lots of fiction at cheap prices. Also, if you stay in a bed and breakfast or a rented cottage during your holidays, you will find plenty of books left behind by other tourists. All this shows that books are surviving in the new age.

It seems that the new technology is actually enhancing society and culture rather than working against them. I hope that people will stay cultured and sociable as ever. If anything, I wish that would increase.

We would be pleased if you communicate your thoughts and suggestions to us. Please write to (post@islamictourism.com). Your comments are highly appreciated.

Dr. Abdul-Rahim Hassan
Editor-in-Chief


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