A small beachfront café in Gaza offers diners a break from the digital world by offering free paper books to read while sipping their drinks.
Moamen Touman, the café's owner and the idea of the Sea Reader Library, hopes that this will encourage more people to read books and use the time they spend surfing the internet and social media to choose from a small selection of books available at the café.
"All the kiosks and cafeterias serve hot drinks, cold drinks and sandwiches, but I liked the idea of presenting a book that promotes a forgotten reading culture in the age of mobile phones," Touman said.
"The idea became that the customer would come and take a book and read it and complete it on the second day. I liked to develop the idea until I came up with the idea of the Sea Reader Library."
Toman expressed his happiness in the acceptance of the idea by his café patrons, and some of them presented gifts of books to provide his library, and said, "Today the idea has become widely accepted. And the customers accept the idea of the book with the special drink, people support me too and come with them gifts of books. I hope this culture will continue."
Cafe & Library
Residents of the besieged Gaza Strip simply frequent the kiosk – the café and library – and choose a book, enjoying a little light reading with a view of the water as they drink.
Among them is Areej Awwad, who said, "If anyone gets tired of reading in a certain place, with this reading kiosk on the seashore, anyone will be encouraged to read, because the sea atmosphere is fun, and with reading the pleasure will increase."
Café visitor Wassim Lubbad agrees, saying, "When you touch the book and turn the pages, you feel something new and break the routine." He went on to say that the smell of books reminds the reader of the worlds of culture, and with the view of the sea the human being feels refreshed.