The year 2016 was declared as the year of reading in the UAE, by President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The purpose was to create a generation of book lovers. To help fight this battle, Gulf News launched the #GNBookClub initiative in January, 2016, too.
A series of competitions, reader book reviews, Twitter debates, author conversations and literary giveaways were planned over the course of the year.
Today, with over 1,400 members, the love for the written word carries on. Members continue to review their favourite books, create their own book clubs and some have gone on to make libraries in their homes. Some young members have even been inspired to initiate campaigns to collect old books, which the readers don’t want anymore, and donate them to nonprofit organisations, thus spreading the joy of reading.
