Hanna Leona had a simple fix for the paralysis of too much choice: wrap the book in brown paper, tie it with string, and let the reader take a chance.
That spirit of discovery ran through the opening day of the 35th Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, which began Sunday at Adnec Centre under the theme “Turn the Page, Read the World.” Publishers, booksellers and readers gathered for what organisers have shaped into a six-day celebration of the written word, and the first hours delivered a range of launches that moved between royal memoir, architectural history and reinvented browsing.
Additional reference context is available at https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/books/2026/09/13/abu-dhabi-book-fair-opens-with-juan-carlos-memoir-and-book-on-emirates-architectural-heritage/.
The highest-profile moment came with the Arabic edition launch of Reconciliation, the memoir of former Spanish king Juan Carlos I. The former monarch appeared in person to explain why he spent two years working with French writer Laurence Debray on the project. His motivation was direct: he believed Spain’s democratic transition had been publicly misrepresented and he wanted to correct that record himself.
“At the moment, I see that in the newspapers and the press, the transition hasn’t been explained exactly as it happened,” Juan Carlos said during his remarks at the fair.
The opening day also marked the debut of Archive of Tomorrow: Modern Heritage in Abu Dhabi, a photographic history of the capital’s architectural evolution published by the Department of Culture and Tourism, Abu Dhabi. The bilingual coffee-table volume is the first official publication devoted to the emirate’s modern heritage, combining writing, photography and artwork to document the buildings, sites and urban landscapes that have shaped Abu Dhabi’s contemporary identity. It will go on sale later in the year.
Meanwhile, Leona’s Blind Date with a Book stand offered something quieter but no less considered. Popular fiction and non-fiction titles, selected for readability and aimed at readers aged 15 and older, were wrapped in brown paper and tied with string, priced between Dh35 and Dh65 (roughly $9.50 to $15). The author name, title and cover were hidden entirely.
Leona, who manages the stand, described the thinking behind it plainly. Book fairs can overwhelm visitors with options until they stop exploring and simply hunt for a single title they already had in mind. Removing the packaging removes that tunnel vision.
“Sometimes people come looking for a certain book and forget about all the other choices around them,” she said. “There can be so much choice that you become paralysed by it. This takes that away and lets you focus on being excited about a book again.”
Customers were already buying multiple wrapped titles at once. Her advice to anyone still hesitant: “Give every book some time and it may grow on you. If not, you can always give it to somebody else.”
The fair also showed how one family business has navigated the shift from physical to digital retail without losing what made it a bookshop in the first place. Al Ummah Bookshop from Sharjah started 25 years ago selling CDs and spiritual lecture recordings before moving into books. Today it operates primarily online, with no permanent physical location, and staff deliver purchases directly to customers. Yet the business keeps returning to book fairs precisely because the screen cannot replicate a conversation.
Ibrahim Ismail, who works alongside his father at Al Ummah, was clear about what the fair gives them that a website cannot.
“We come to book fairs to meet our customers because a significant portion of them now buy books online,” he said. “For us, it is a chance to understand what they prefer and how we can serve them better. It also lets them know what we have.”
Running a physical shop carries overhead that the online model avoids, but Ismail sees the trade-off as a deliberate choice rather than a compromise. The personal interaction is the point.
“We still have the spirit of a bookstore, which is the personal interaction, while understanding where the industry is going,” he said. “I think we have found the right balance.”
The Abu Dhabi International Book Fair continues through Friday at Adnec Centre, with free entry to the public programme available through online registration. Whether that balance Ismail describes holds as digital retail keeps expanding is a question the fair itself, in its 35th year, is still helping to answer.