The goal of the country-wide project is to nurture an entire generation of lifelong readers, and ensure the groundwork is in place to support the nation's knowledg economy goals.

Celebrating Arabic Reading aimed to make Arabic books more accessible for first-time online book readers with discounts of up to 90 percent on online publications at the Google Play Books store.

As a result, book lovers across nine countries, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt took advantage of the offer.