A Ship filled with Books

I still remember that day, nearly two decades before. Dad returning from office, GDN clutched in his hand. Announcing to us, with a big smile, the world’s largest floating bookshop, MV Doulos, will be in Bahrain for the next 2 weeks.

I was ecstatic and marvelled beyond anything. A floating bookshop? A ship filled with books? What even!

Self Illustrated

That very evening, along with my dearest Mum & Dad, The excited 12 year old me rushed inside the huge ship, docked in Mina Salman port. My first time even stepping into one. A proper one at that. Retrieving from a bizarre, flickering set of memories I have of that day. A low ceiling floor, floor after floor, cramped with shelves, filled with books, and people scurrying about in all directions.

Credits: Gulf Daily News (GDN)

I darted in and instinctively picked one book I knew could be mine. Said 400 units on the cover. Some weird currency conversion on the ship, that had made no sense to me then. To which my sweetest Dad simply smiled, nodded and let me be.

We went to the cashier after Dad ensured I’d had my time and a good look around. Paying up, book in a white plastic see-through bag, We headed out the deck room and down the stairs, followed by a series of others. And then the long slope by the massive ship, that takes you to the guarded entrance. A big fat Lord of the Rings Trilogy copy, weighing well over a few pounds, clutched in my chubby hands.

Warmth and unexplainable joy, is all I can think of when I reminisce that day. That as the years passed by, and after multple failed attempts of completing the book, A whooping 1140 pages in total, I have now loyally carried it all the way to Amsterdam, Not entirely in the hope of finishing it, but more to find it in my bookshelf. As a nostalgic throwback to the day, when I got inside a ship filled with just books.