Hany El Gamalis a 39 years old Egyptian Engineer, he currently works as an administrative consultant. In September 2011 he started an initiative with his wife and some of his friends, their target was to encourage people to read and expand the culture of reading among Egyptians. They noticed that most of the books presented in the known bookstores are not affordable for everyone so they started their own small bookshop at Maadi, named “Kotob w Hagat”, they donated their used books and collected some from other people. They don’t just sell books but also allow people to make subscriptions to rent and exchange books at a minimal cost, affordable for everyone.

Besides that, they host small sized seminars at the bookstore and invite speakers to talk about various topics. Eng. El Gamal hopes that in the future there will be many bookstores with the same concept around Egypt.