One of the reasons why I love Sulaimaniya is because this city has bookstores and some of them has English books :) ok, I know I sound like an old school because now a days people don't really go to a "real" bookstore, they go online or read e-book via kindle. Anyway, below are the bookstores that you need to visit in Sulaimaniya, most of them are located in the Bazaar.
Endeshe (Andesha)
The bookstore is located in the Bazaar, next to Rasha Mall. It has various collection of books in English, Kurdish and Arabic.
One thing special about this book is that it has a mini cafe. We can sit down at the bookstore reading and having cups of tea or coffee. We can also have internet access by paying some dinars.
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| Inside Endeshe |
Zanyar
Zanyar is on the Piramerd Street, in the Bazaar near Kurdistan Mall 1. They have English book for academic purposes (university level, primary and secondary schools), as well as Kurdish and Arabic text books, novels, and different kinds of dictionary.
It does not have a mini cafe and place to sit and much smaller than Endesha. Nevertheless, I really recommend Zanyar as it has the best collections of English books so far.
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| Some of Zanyar's collection |
Xazalnus
The store is located near the Sara Square, in the Bazaar. It is in the ground floor of a building called Hoshiar Qaftan Center. The size of the store is smaller than other two stores above as well as the collection of the books. It sells DVDs from different countries such as Iran, US, Russia, etc. It costs about 3000 Iraqi Dinar. Similar to Endeshe, Xazalnus has mini cafe but it only provides soft drinks and juices in the box. What I like the best from this store is the room setting and the lighting, it is so beautiful and it makes the room feel cozy.
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| Inside the bookstore: nice setting and lighting |
Next to Xazalnus, there are some other small bookstores, some sells Kurdish and Arabic books only, and there are two other shops sell several English books (novels, English text for students, etc).
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| Xazalnus entrance |
Please click the link below to read more about this bookstore:
Sulaimani bookshop tries to turn page on extrimism
Jamal Erfan
The name is taken from a name of a Kurdish progressive writer, Mr Jamal Erfan. It is It is outside the bazaar, near Bakhi Ghisti (Sulaimaniya Public Park). Similar to Endeshe, Jamal Erfan is a combination of a library, bookstore and a mini cafe. It provides free wifi. We can sit and order a cup of tea or cappucino while reading a book in the library. We can buy the book as well. Unfortunately, most of the books are in Kurdish.
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| Inside Jamal Erfan Library |
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Jamal Erfan Cafe Library from Outside
Apart from the "formal" bookstore, we can find book sellers in the street of the bazaar, as follows. The books sold in the street usually are in Arabic or Kurdish.
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