As bibliophiles in various parts of the world celebrated Book Lovers Day all through Tuesday, Doha had its very own book exchange and conversations gathering. Amidst a flurry of food, beverages, hardcovers and softcovers, a dozen book-lovers bonded over their passion for the written word at Nando’s in Hyatt Plaza Mall.
The clue to what made the Book Swap Tweetup event special lay in the name – it was a book swap instead of the usual book-lovers meets. Everybody had to walk in with a book that they were willing to swap with another, whilst explaining what is special about the book they had brought.
Animated discussions over books, authors and characters went on for long, and all the attendees left the venue with smiles on their faces, new books in their hands and also having made new friends.
Layal Kobti, Marketing Manager, Nando’s, told Community, “Book swap events are terrific opportunities for like-minded people to meet and Nando’s is the ideal place to gather in an informal setting where you are encouraged to be yourself, laugh out loud, and of course, dig into our favourite Nando’s dishes while having a great time with friends. We, at Nando’s, have always supported Doha Tweetups events but this is the first time we hosted the book swap and it went really well.”
Community spoke to Doha’s bookworms who had gathered at the venue about what they had to share about the event:

Ferras Mohssen: The book swap is something that we should do more of. It brings book lovers together and spreads what they have learnt from these books. We need to get not only us but also the younger crowd involved in reading and appreciating books because they are so absorbed in technology that they are unaware of what books can teach them. We, too, keep forgetting that the greatest invention mankind ever made was the written word. And we need to keep that alive.

Hamza Ahmed: It’s good to see that we are having such events here in Doha. We are getting to know a lot of different communities here, and in one place, we get to interact with various nationalities, how they work, their culture, their lifestyle and get to know them on a personal level. So, in that sense, it’s a really good event because I got to meet somebody from Sri Lanka or Lebanon or India. It’s good to see the multi-cultural, diverse set of people of Qatar come together. People who enjoy books a lot and share the same feelings about books is becoming rarer now in Doha. Generally, people today are moving away from reading books as there are so many things that they are getting preoccupied with. So an event of this sort is certainly a good break from the routine.

Natalie Wherlock: Doha Tweetups is basically an online community to organise offline events. Many complain that there’s nothing to do in Qatar so we at Doha Tweetups are trying to find different interests; be it books or food or organising a tweet-up at the international airport before it was opened to the public, and make people meet over it. This tweetup, like our other tweetups is to add value to the community and get different members of the community together.

Salman Surti: This was a different event in that when people usually meet up, there isn’t a specific idea or a topic to talk about. But when it’s about books, for instance, the discussions get very intense. It’s at such tweetups that you get to find people with interests similar to yours; like I met someone who, too, like me, jumps from one genre of book to the other. It’s fun to chat over such things as it’s hard to find people who share similar reading patterns as yours.

Ketaki Doshi: Book swaps are important events for Doha. The city has people from different cultures and such events bring them together. For me, as a writer, such an event is a great opportunity to not only meet like-minded people but also to listen and share a variety of stories.