Antoine: A Look At Lebanon’s Top Bookstore

“I read this great book last week, do you want to borrow it?” “Nah hala2 brou7 3ala Antoine beshtere”. This is a typical chat among us Lebanese bookworms. Antoine’s is like Lebanon’s own Barnes and Noble, and it’s time to crack open this book (pun intended)!

The history of Librarie Antoine 

Founded by Antoine Naufal in 1933, the bookstore’s first branch was in Bab Idriss. Coming from a challenging background that made continuing his education tough, Naufal found refuge working at a library. And when he noticed the cheap rent in Bab Idriss, he received some financial aid from his mom and decided to open his own store. Unlike other bookstores at the time, if a customer asked for a book he didn’t have, he’d pedal off to other shops to fetch it. The first Bab Idriss branch was sadly destroyed during the Lebanese Civil War.

One of his daughters actually wrote a book about him! Wonder if you can find it at Antoine…

It’s everywhere!

Thanks to Naufal’s early efforts, Antoine Library quickly became a household name in Lebanon. Aside from their 9 branches across Lebanon, the local book giant has two unique stores on both IC campuses as well as AUB. There’s even a sort of Antoine bookstore in Dubai, but more on that later.

Other ventures for the book giant

Antoine didn’t stop at being just a bookstore. It is part of a larger company, Antoine International Holding, which encompasses several businesses. These include two publishing houses, one of which collaborates with Hachette Livre of France. Additionally, there is a leading book distribution company in Saudi Arabia named Al Warrak, a Dubai-based French bookstore named Culture & Co., and Atlas Interactif, a company which promotes educational books.

Antoine is like a cozy haven for Lebanese bookworms and maybe even the reason many of us turned into bookworms in the first place. Personally, I have very fond memories of tagging along with my mother to pick out books, which definitely fueled my love for reading.