The 9th Annual Madurai Book Fair, organised by Booksellers’ and Publishers Association of South India (BAPASI), came to a close at the Tamukkam Grounds here on Sunday.
Speaking about the fair, BAPASI secretary K.S. Pugalendi said response from the public this year had been excellent.
“More than 2 lakh people visited the fair in the last 10 days and sales of Rs.3 crore has been registered. Students from 150 schools were also brought to the fair,” he said on Sunday.
“Tamil literature and novels have been the favourites among customers who had a range of stalls and authors to choose from,” Mr. Pugalendi added.
The valedictory function was attended by S. Maniswara Raja, Regional Passport Officer, M. Thirumalai, Vice-Chancellor of Tamil University in Thanjavur, and M. Meenakshi Somasundaram, president of BAPASI.
Despite concerns about technology edging out the reading habit, most of the stall owners at the fair said that there had been a visible upswing in the number of visitors and an increase in sales this year. “Books on women’s issues as well as social issues in general were favoured by youngsters and students,” said S. Vidhya of Kannappan Publications from Chennai.
Many other representatives of publishing houses also said that they had noticed an increased interest among the public in Tamil books on history, heritage and civilisation.
“A lot of youngsters came looking for books on historical events. Self-help and motivational books have always been big sellers and this year too, it was no different,” said Veera Balan of Munnetra Publications.
Writer and activist A. Muthukrishnan noted that many youngsters were searching for answers and questioning origins which has prompted the recent trend in reading books on ancient civilisations and wanting to know about history and heritage. “It was heartening to see a lot of serious books being favoured at the fair,” he said.
Though there were not many stalls selling English books, stall owners said that children’s books and CDs had been a big selling point. Stalls selling academic books, guides and question banks also did some brisk business, the organisers said.
