Great African Reads discussion

Now that the Egyptian tour is nearly over (about 15 days left), lets talk about the overall experience.
For those who never visited Egypt before: What is your impression about this country, out of what you read in the group or news you read about Egypt?
And for those who visited Egypt before, well.. the floor is yours :))

P.S.: No need to go easy on us :D

Hope everyone enjoyed this trip.. Can't wait till the next African adventure :D

i have loved this Egypt stop on the tour! it was fabulous having actual Egyptians join us--as far as i know, that is the first time we have had anyone from our tour stop country along for the ride. i hope it happens again soon and i hope all the new people will continue on in this literary journey. i also don't want the egypt tour to stop so i am hoping we can generate some discussion about other egyptian books, especially "No One Sleeps in Alexandria" since there was so much interest in that from the beginning.

as for actually being in Egypt, i loved the two weeks I got to spend there at the end of 2007. guide books warned travelers to be careful about water and to order only hot food. i ate plenty of food while i was there and i did not get sick. :D
the guide books also warned ladies about young men harrassing them--i only had this problem once, when i was walking with another american woman. oh, and while with three others, we did get bothered by a so-called "tout" but i told him to bug off. he got irritated, but whatever.

most of my experience there was entirely positive--everyone i interacted with encouraged me to speak Arabic and no one tried to get me to switch to english. the people who cleaned my hotel room taught me some egyptian arabic everyday. the young lady who took me around the museum at biblioteca alexandrina spoke fantastic english and got me SO EXCITED about ancient egyptian history--i was not expecting to become so interested in it, but now i'm hooked.

i left the country feeling exhausted in a happy way--a little bit overwhelmed---you know, i wanted to go home and relax but i left feeling like "i must get back to this country!!!"

the sadawi book did nothing to evoke memories of my time there, by the way...i may as well have been reading about any other country in the world, i think.

Thank you Marieke for your words :)
So, you didn't find the book relevant to the country per-say.. Was it more of a talk on general human feelings/experience then?
I hope that "No one sleeps in Alexandria" will give you more of the Egypt experience :)

It was a pleasure to read your lines dear …you are welcome here for anther time ;)

I am still reading "No One Sleeps" so hope to get into discussion about it eventually. It's a slow paced book so far, but much more evocative of the scene of the country than Sadawi. I too, have enjoyed participation by members from the country.

Andrea wrote: "I am still reading "No One Sleeps" so hope to get into discussion about it eventually. It's a slow paced book so far, but much more evocative of the scene of the country than Sadawi. I too, have ..."

Thank you for your comment , we were very happy to join you to :)

For (no one sleeps in Alexandria) I think historical atmosphere gives any novel a special magic.. , I hope it was handled in a good way here , Ng already read it and I got the book now , I will start in it as possible as I can , so I will be glad to participate in a discussion thread about this book :)

Gosh--i just wrote a post here and i accidentally caused it to disappear!!

I wanted to ask our Egyptian members a question about this book. I saw a complaint in a review on GoodReads that this book was written for westerners, not for Egyptians. Do you all agree with that? Sometimes i understand this type of complaint (it was written for the West, not for Us), but in this case i don't understand where the reviewer is coming from.

I'm going to try to start re-reading it this weekend and i think i'll keep that criticism in mind to see if i can figure out what the reviewer meant.

Marikie , which book are you talking about ?
is it (No one sleeps in Alexandria) ?

Nile daughter wrote: "Marikie , which book are you talking about ?
is it (No one sleeps in Alexandria) ?"

Right--I was asking about no one sleeps in Alexandria. :D

Marieke wrote: "Nile daughter wrote: "Marikie , which book are you talking about ?
is it (No one sleeps in Alexandria) ?"

Right--I was asking about no one sleeps in Alexandria. :D"

No one sleeps in Alex?! How come?
It's the complete opposite!

Now I see my mistake with posting! I meant to post that question at the other thread for "NoOne Sleeps." and I did this morning...Nile Daughter explained and I think her answer makes sense. I had not understood the reviewer properly. Let me know what you think, Ng (but at the thread dedicated for the book!) :D

I didn't participate in the Egypt tour as fully as I would have liked (work ALWAYS gets in the way of my life *sigh*) but I also loved having members from Egypt on this tour!! That made it really special and inspiring! It's great to have your insight into all things Egyptian (otherwise I probably wouldn't have realised that Sadawi's book was so controversial in Egypt). Thanks!! :D

(Sorry, my post comes so late - just catching up on things now :) )