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Reading for pleasure
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Going by the overwhelming response of visitors at book fairs, it seems too early to write off the reading habit, writes Nivedita Ganguly
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Photo: K.R. Deepak
World of books Visitors going around the book fair
Even as old-timers complain that the reading habit is on the wane, going by the overwhelming response at the eighth Visakha Book Fair of Visalandhra Book House at Turner’s Choultry, it seems too early to write off the reading habit. The young b
rigade somehow appears to have survived the onslaught of television and Internet.
The fair that is a treasure trove of knowledge has 25,000 books on display from a vast range of topics. But the ones selling like hot cakes are the books of fiction, history and tourism. Most of the latest arrivals and bestsellers find a place here in the fair that will be on till November 20.
While there was a period of lull in the reading pattern of the people, the number of avid readers has increased in recent times, observes manager of Visalandhra Book House, P. Yogi. Anybody who is running a bookstore for over a decade in the city will tell you that the number of books fighting for shelf space has grown by at least tenfold since they started out.
One of the reasons responsible for this trend cited by writers and publishers is the growing amount of stress in people’s life.
The world of books can indeed caress your innermost desires and offer you the most relaxing experience of life that is otherwise trapped in a merciless world filled with high doses of insecurity and stress. Be it reading fictions or travel books, it helps you slip into another world far away from your troubled sphere of existence.
No wonder more and more people grab travel books to experience a slice of life of the mystic Northeast, the romantic charm of the South or of a faraway destination unaffected by the perils of urbanisation.
“We have sold out many travel and tourism books at the fair. People have money but seldom find time to explore other regions. So the community of armchair travellers is increasing day by day,” says Yogi.
And for the avid readers, the choices are aplenty. Fiction, non-fiction, management books, self-help books, biographies, autobiographies and histories are just some of the books that are available for the book lover. Bestsellers like The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, series of books by Paulo Coelho, biographies of famous personalities and an impressive range of books on Mahatma Gandhi jostle for space on the shelves at the fair.
Cinema buffs should not miss out on the this one, The Cinema of Satyajit Ray by Chidananda Dasgupta, a book that chronicles the fascinating journey of Indian cinema from the masses to the pedestals of World Cinema through the hands of one of the most finest directors of Indian Cinema.
Recreating the beautiful world of a bygone era, the charm of the classics is alluring many readers today. The fair has a varied range of novels, plays and short stories from Shakespeare, Tolstoy, and Charles Dickens to Chekov and Virginia Woolf.
For the kids, there is a whole world of fantasy and adventure waiting to be explored.
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Mangalore
Puducherry
Tiruchirapalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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