While the category ‘Most Read Books this Year in Egypt’, to be found on Goodreads, the largest online site for readers and book recommendations, can hardly be claimed representative of Egyptian readers as a whole, it is nonetheless interesting to take a glimpse at some of the popular reads of the past 12 months and to see whether there might be any identifiable trends or surprises amongst them. The website Goodreads was founded back in 2006 and acquired by Amazon in 2013. Its number of members has been growing exponentially, with a whole 20 million registered back in 2013. The site offers its users a number of functions, including the possibility to generate individual reading lists, rate and review books, join countless groups and discussions and basically track one’s own reading habits or set personal reading goals. For the undecided reader, there is always the option of looking into the site’s various lists, be they top 10 lists, genre or theme-based, or, in this case a list reflecting Egyptian reading habits of the past 12 months. More specifically, the list contains books that have been completed and reviewed with a…
