A woman perusing a book at Sophia Bookstore in Riyadh. (Credit: Yara Malke/L'Orient Today)
Lebanese dwellers in the capital know that, come summertime, it's tough to find things to do in the searing heat. L'Orient Today highlights standout cultural sanctuaries for evenings well spent in this Riyadh special series.
From the outside, Sophia's front windows glow with blue lightwaves. As the door closes behind me, the bustle of the nearby highway pauses like a cassette tape. After an eventful week crisscrossing the city, I can hear my own thoughts for the first time this evening.
The independent bookstore, comprising a library and café, feels like another plane, where the loudest sounds are of teacups meeting saucers and the faint hum of air conditioning. The space smells of freshly brewed coffee with hints of incense.
Nearly every book available here is in Arabic, whether an original work or a translation: Classics and philosophy to self-help, books on love, war, peace, anarchism, Sufism, and metaphysics to psychology, science, history, law, medicine, and anthropology. I spot stories about pomegranate trees, lone ships in the docks, and ballet slippers.
The nook to the right houses works by Mahmoud Darwish, Hoda Barakat, Al-Jahiz, Naguib Mahfouz, Mia al-Rahbi and Al-Khansa. Nearby are Arabic translations of Foucault, Descartes, Dickens and Wollstonecraft. Across the room, Ghassan Kanafani's “Returning to Haifa” sits on one shelf, then several Elena Ferrante novels on the one towards the end of the room, alongside Tolstoy, Icelandic literature and, naturally, “Moby-Dick” translated into Arabic, for anyone who didn't find it challenging enough in English.
Fiction, nonfiction, novels, short stories, and poetry make for a rich collection in a relatively quaint space.
Sophia's furniture and setup are noticeably minimalist, save for the elaborate carpets. Against the subdued color scheme, rows of assorted book spines and covers are the room's focal point.
The interior is awash in wood, and it has bookshelves for walls. It is nearly impossible to sit anywhere without being surrounded by them. They stretch high above the seating areas, with timber library ladders nearby for reaching the upper rows.
In the reception area, customers chat over coffee. A man plays the piano as his wife films him on her phone. A creased sheet music book opened to “La Campanella” by Franz Liszt sits on the music stand. The pages look too worn to be decorative.
Some visitors work quietly on their laptops. A chess game unfolds at one of the tables while a staff member rearranges books on a nearby shelf. Arabic quotes painted on the walls underscore Sophia's commitment to the pursuit of knowledge and its exchange through books.
A Hemingway quote is printed on the wall near the café counter, where an impressive selection of teas, some cold sandwiches and desserts, and what seems like every kind of coffee machine under the sun awaits customers. Nearby, a suggestion trunk secured with a heart-shaped padlock awaits earnest feedback.
I order a Moroccan mint tea and sit down to read “Warda Waheeda” (Muriel Barbery's ‘Une rose seule,’ translated into Arabic), which I admittedly picked solely because I judged the book by its lovely cover. On the La-Z-Boy couch near me, a woman reads with her eyes half-closed. She looks tired but cannot put down her book.
"I know the feeling," I tell her, unprompted. She chuckles bewilderedly, as though waking from a daydream, stretches her arms, and buries her head back in the pages.
Sophia is an independent bookstore and publishing house in the Qurtubah district. It opened its Riyadh branch in 2022. In addition to its carefully curated Arabic and translated literature, Sophia hosts cultural events and reading clubs. Find details here.
