WIDE CHOICE: Visitors skimming through various titles at a CD stall in the 18th Vijayawada Book Festival. — PHOTO: RAJU. V.

VIJAYAWADA: That the 18th edition of Vijayawada Book Festival is a big draw is evident.

The annual event converts the sprawling Swaraj Maidan into a cynosure of all eyes, and the public gaze remains static on the book expo venue until the booksellers are gone lock, stock and barrel.

People dart across the ground from one stall to another to find the latest editions of books, novels, dictionaries, charts and encyclopaedias.

Changing flavours

Keeping in view the contemporary needs of the jet-paced youth, Comprint, a Hyderabad-based company, has sprinkled virtual magic in its stall for the techno-savvy crowd.

It has a mind-boggling range of compact discs (CDs) catering to the changing flavours of different age groups. Every CD is breakneck-paced, action-packed, and filled with plenty of thrilling suspense.

"We have nearly 2,000-odd varieties of CDs. The audio-visual impact is so profound that children become purely addictive to these CDs once they witness their magic," says Raju, the caretaker of the stall.

Crowds find this corner of the fair a compelling force that is hard to resist.

The discs offer easy techniques to learn complete grammar, foreign languages like German, Italian and Spanish and enhance your power of thinking by treating you to the current craze Sudoku, the logical and reasoning game.

One can explore the world of trusted information quickly and easily by gaining access to the `Latest Encarta - 2007'. Shell out Rs. 2,495 and bring home Encyclopaedia Britannica— 2007, a compilation of six CDs encompassing 35 volumes.

Mind-boggling range

Even as one sifts through the mind-boggling range of CDs on display, the National Geographic Channel's `112 Years' grabs attention.

The 32 CD ROMs provide a peek into every magazine and article from 1888 to 2000, in addition to over 1,85,000 photos and illustrations.

Medical encyclopaedia on human anatomy and physiology, PMT (pre-medical test) and CET (all engineering entrance tests like IIT, JEE and BITS) are other attractions. Nearly 50 varieties of CDs on Discovery Channel's intriguing subjects like `Understanding Flight', `Dynamic Earth' and `Animals in the Wild' await the adventurous lot.

For tiny-tots, in addition to the regular CDs of bedtime stories, birthday songs and Jataka tales, computer games on their favourite television icons like Power Rangers, Ninja Storm, Harry Potter and Spiderman are a big lure.

"These CDs serve as effective mode to reign in my unruly son, who stays glued to the screen once the magic begins to roll on," says Manjulatha, a housewife from Poornanandampet.

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