The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : City of book fairs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 09, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

City of book fairs

Staff Reporter

Nearly 60,000 people might have visited the book festival.

KOCHI: Nothing could replace the feeling of being in the middle of a whole ground filled with books. The city loves that experience, it seems. Or else, it would not have become home to so many book-fairs.

Last year had witnessed at least five to six book fairs happening, mostly at the Ernakulathappan Grounds. Even when academics and critics complain about the reading habit waning, people continue to visit these fairs.

“There was an increase of 20-25 per cent in the number of visitors to the fair compared to last year. Nearly 60,000 people might have visited the festival during 10 days it was on,” said E.N. Nandakumar, who headed the International Book Festival, which had its 12th edition last month.

That, in a way, gives an idea about the direction in which the book market in Kochi is heading to. “Kochi, as far as books are concerned, is definitely growing. Self-help books and new Indian writing, like the ones by Chetan Bhagat, are selling well. Also, the children’s section is growing like anything,” says Ravi Dee Cee, the CEO of D.C. Books. “There are books that might not move that well across the State, at the same time which is wanted by a few people. We always make sure that such titles are also there in our fairs, ” says Mr. Ravi.

Even though movements like the International Book Fair, conducted during the first week of December, has already got a loyal clientele, the situation has been slightly different. “We always have people coming in regularly from neighbouring districts, just for the festival. But this year, we were afraid that the recession might have an impact. Luckily, there was not much of it,” says Mr. Nandakumar.

There were some local reasons as well, for the slight dip in enthusiasm. The recent traffic regulation restricted plying of buses along the Durbar Hall Road. “This made the crowd that relied on public transport to think twice before heading for the fair. ,” said Jayachandran T. of CICC Books.

But then, book fairs have always attracted institutions that make purchases in bulk. “Individual purchase of Malayalam books has never been good, especially during the recent period. Small publishers like us will have to rely on institutional purchases,” said Shaji George of Pranata Books. Then there are book-fairs exclusively for second-hand books. These fairs, which go on for an extended period are frequented mostly by those after popular fiction.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala