Will Miss #20: Shahr-e-Ketab

Shahr-e-Ketab is a really neat Iranian bookstore chain whose existence I became aware of the day my visit to the inside of Milad Tower failed:

“Shahr” means “city” and “ketab” means “book,” so “Shahr-e-Ketab,” literally means “City of Books,” or “Book City” (in Persian, nouns always come first).

The store had several sections, including a card/gift box/knickknacks (like keychains) section (in the far left area of the first picture below), a school supplies section, a toy section, an artistic section, even a plant section, and obviously, a huge variety of books:

Interestingly, you can’t carry items from one section to another, even if you plan on purchasing them. Say, for instance, you wanted to buy a particular toy, but wanted to look around the rest of the store. You would have to give your toy to the toy section’s cashier, and then she would give you a blue slip stating which item you’re buying. Then, you can go look around the rest of the store. You decide to get nothing except the toy, so you take the blue slip to the main counter, pay for the toy, and then the cashier at the main counter gives you a red slip, verifying that you’ve paid. You then take that red slip to the toy counter,  and the cashier gives you the toy (this sleep is for one of the books I purchased):

I got these five books, which make up Dr. Alaeddin Pazargadi’s “Farsi Asan” (“Easy Persian”) series, to learn how to read and write Persian:

These books are awesome because they include Persian (Farsi), English, and best of all Finglish, which is really, really, really helpful when learning which sound each letter makes, since the alphabet is Latinized.

Each book also comes with its own CD (I haven’t tested the CDs out yet):

I also found this cute little book called “Tomorrow”:

It was a great, short read!

And check out these adorable gift bags!

I will miss this wonderful bookstore chain.