time to read because they are struggling to survive, he said. When we can increase the quality of education and decrease poverty, then they will be able to read. I 'm not interested in whether they read my book, I just hope they will read anything. Another novelist credited with changing reading habits in Egypt is Ahmed Khaled Towfik, a 49-year-old medical professor described by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation as the Arab world's most prominent bestselling author of fantasy and horror. He has written more than 200 books, selling millions of copies. He said he was among the first Egyptian authors to write for young people. Twenty years ago there was nothing for 16, 17, 18-year-olds to read, said Towfik. We invented popular literature. I think I made the youth fond of reading. I think most of my readers were in Tahrir Square. I changed a part of their thinking, although you ca n't compare that to their economic disappointment or the scourge of the police system. Towfik's book Utopia, which has just been published in English, is a grim futuristic account of Egyptian society in the year 2023 with wealthy gated communities insulated from the poverty outside. Towfik said that despite Egypt's revolution, he still fears the scenes in his book, first published in Arabic in 2009, could come true. The first uprising came from the middle class, but I think another bloodier one could come