Based in Egypt for many years now, David Sims is an independent consultant specialized in urban development and habitat. He has worked in a number of Middle Eastern and North African countries, as well as elsewhere in Africa and Asia. He is the author of Understanding Cairo: The Logic of a City Out of Control (AUC Press, paperback edition 2012) and Egypt’s Desert Dreams: Development or Disaster?—now out in paperback (AUC Press, 2018).
In his Seven Answers, he tells us what grabs him about Egypt’s urban development.
AUC Press: What book(s) are you currently reading?
DS: I just finished a biography in French of Czar Nicholas II—an amazing period in Russian history—and I am reading
Heureux Comme Dieu en France by Marc Dugain, a novel about the French Resistance, plus Alaa Al Aswany’s
Nadi al-sayyarat (The Automobile Club) in English translation. (I had started it in Arabic, but I am too slow a reader!)
AUC Press: What is it about your field of expertise that really fascinates you?
DS: Cities in developing countries, especially their spatial expansion and metamorphoses, and the oftentimes ridiculous juxtaposition between the filthy rich, the ‘middle classes,’ and everyone else.
AUC Press: How much time goes into research before you sit down to write a book?
DS: I first do a lot of reading on the subject, and then once I have an outline I do a round of research for each chapter or subject. Then I begin writing, and I usually find I need to do more fine-grained research to support my arguments. My own past experiences and related material are also sources of information.
AUC Press: What were some of the biggest challenges you faced while writing your books?
DS: Trying to get useful facts about a subject and a balanced range of opinions. The internet is a very useful tool, but one needs to be very careful about selecting what pops up on Google.
AUC Press: If you were writing your autobiography, what would the title be?
DS: I haven’t thought of one, simply because I hardly think anyone would want to read the story of my life.
AUC Press: What advice would you give to somebody starting in your field?
DS: Really, I can’t think of useful advice.
AUC Press: What book would you have liked to have written and why?
DS: I’m still producing books, so I hope to have time to eventually write pretty much all that pleases me. But then, more subjects always come up.
