• Project Blog
• The Book List
• Knowledge Cafes
• FAQs
• Home

Knowledge Cafes

100 Books first effort will be to participate in the creation of informal centers called Knowledge Cafés. These cafes will house donated books and lend them out on a bi-weekly basis. They will also serve coffee, promote cross-cultural conversation, host local and English-language films, and provide access to local and English-language music. My goal is to get a first delivery of books to two such cafes by May 2008—but to do so I desperately need your help!

The first 100 Books Knowledge Café will be based in Siwa, Egypt. Siwa's main eco-hotel developer, Dr. Mounir Neamantalla, has generously offered to host the café in a historic space he is developing just off the town's ancient market square.
At the café, shelves will feature donated books for lending to local children and adults, including dictionaries and other English-language instruction materials. Tourists and locals will be able to chat at tables or use computers for research or email. Displays of local jewelry and artifacts will hang above a range of local products for sale. It is a new kind of center, which aims to promote interaction between tourists and locals in a non-transactional setting.

The second Knowledge Café will be housed within the Al Balad Cultural Center, a vibrant bookstore and art gallery in downtown Cairo near the American University in Cairo. Opened by six young Egyptians in mid-2007, the Center encourages patrons to come and linger over coffee and free internet access. It also promotes Egyptian literature, shows films, and sells a wide range of Arabic books and a few English ones.

Al-Balad has graciously agreed to dedicate room for 150 English-language titles from the 100 Books Project to lend out on a rotating basis. Book donations will hopefully come both from English-speaking students and visitors to Cairo, as well as from overseas donations. The center can also lend out some of your English-language music cassettes and CDs. The owners are excited to see the materials that arrive.

How can I help?

1. SUGGEST. The first thing we need is your suggestions for the book list. If you have a suggestion, please email it to us at info@100booksproject.org. We are looking forward to your comments and suggestions. You can also express support for or disagree with an entry on the list.

2. DONATE BOOKS. If you have a book that is on the list--or another book by an author on the list--and you would like to donate it, we would deeply appreciate if you would send it right to us! Another option is to order the book from Amazon.com and have it mailed to us. The majority of the books on the list sell used through Amazon for less than $2, plus shipping. Please order used books in good or very good condition. Books can be sent to our shipping address at: The 100 Books Project, 40-12 72nd Street, Suite B, Woodside, NY 11377 Our immediate goal is FOUR of each title. You can check current inventory here.

3. DONATE FUNDS. If you would like to fund a library or send a cash donation, stay tuned. We should be ready to accept cash donations within the coming months. The project was incoroporated in April 2008 in the State of Delaware, and is awaiting its formal documentation.