A book fair would be held at the St.John’s Vestry Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School grounds in the city from September 16 to 26.
The book fair would feature over 200 stalls with the participation of over 150 publishers, Collector M.Pradeep Kumar said. The fair would feature exclusive stalls highlighting the role of Tamil Nadu’s role in the freedom movement, the Keezhadi excavations and the heritage of Tiruchi, besides stalls for writers, women, children and on cinema. Cultural programmes and talks would be held in the evenings every day.
The district administration has planned to launch a special ‘Read Tiruchi’ campaign to promote the reading habit in connection with fair. Rallies and awareness programmes are planned in cities, towns and villages. ‘Book walls’ would be established in government offices and public places to encourage people to donate books, which would be distributed to libraries in rural areas, Mr.Kumar said.
Meanwhile, the book fair in Karur, which concluded on Monday, drew over 1.35 lakh visitors, according to Collector T.Prabhushankar. Books worth over ₹ 1.35 crore were sold during the fair held from August 19. The district administration had organised the fair in association with The Book Sellers and Publishers Association of South India with 115 stalls.
The district administration had purchased books worth Rs.25 lakhs for the government schools and libraries promoted under the Anaithu Grama Anna Marumalarchi scheme. Nearly 3,300 books, valued at about ₹ 1.75 lakh, were received as donations, he added.
