Spreading the love of books

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Spreading the love of books

Visiting a book fair probably isn’t on most tourists’ must-do list when they go on holiday, but when it happens to be the world’s largest floating book fair, the interest is naturally piqued.

On a recent holiday in Namibia, the world’s largest floating book fair, Logos Hope was docked at the Namibian port of Walvis Bay. I was intrigued and had to take a look.

Logos Hope and its sister ship Doulos Hope are operated by ******* company GBA Ships, travelling around the world promoting “knowledge, help and hope”. Since 1970, five GBA ships have visited more than 480 ports in 150-plus countries and territories, welcoming more that 50 million people on board.

The ships, which spend a couple of weeks in each port, feature more than 5000 titles, primarily children’s books, ********** titles, biographies and self-improvement books, often providing visitors with their first opportunity to access well-priced books.

The ships are crewed by volunteers from all over the world — currently around 350 volunteers from 60 different countries make up the crew of Logos Hope — who promote literacy and education, cross-cultural co-operation, and social awareness. The crew visit local communities, providing education and partnering local groups on community projects, as well as donating books to communities.

Logos Hope, a former ocean-going ferry, has been travelling around ******* since last August and, prior to docking in Walvis Bay, the ship had visited Cape Town, Durban, East London, Gqeberha, and Richards Bay in South *******; Maputo, Mozambique; Toamasina and Antsiranana in Madagascar; Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; and Mombasa, Kenya. In late July, the ship was in Luanda, Angola, with its ******** travels culminating with stops in Ghana and Sierra Leone. In November, Logos Hope is scheduled to go to the Caribbean, with stops in Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and Saint Lucia on the destination list. Doulos Hope, meanwhile, has been travelling around Asia and was due to be in Kuching, Malaysia, for most of August.

My trip to the floating book fair was definitely worthwhile. Logos Hope was probably the most unusual bookshop I’ve ever visited; the young, international crew were friendly and keen to share their stories; and I even picked up a couple of biographies at prices significantly cheaper than I’d find at home.

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#Spreading #love #books

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