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Amar Ekushey Book Fair seems to have its spring zephyr at the second weekend of this month as several thousands of readers wearing colourful dresses, irrespective of age, thronged the book fair.
With a record number of books published at the book fair, sales also increased on Friday making the booksellers hopeful about a steep rise in sales even on the working days.
The day started with children and teenagers arriving at the fair with their parents, siblings, and guardians. Around 11:30am, the first show of Sisimpur was performed and a painting competition began.
Renowned writer Dr Muhammad Zafar Iqbal came to the book fair and met the children about 12 noon.
People from all strata started entering the book fair after 3pm and within an hour, the fair saw a huge crowd which was even larger than that of last Friday.
They wore colourful dresses as if it was ‘Pahela Falgun’, the first day of spring. A huge number of girls and young ladies were seen wearing flower circlets in the fair. They were buying books for themselves or presenting them to their friends or partners.
Redwanur Rahman Jewel, publisher and chief executive of Nalonda, said that finally, they saw a huge crowd as expected after they suffered loss caused by Covid-19 in last two years.
Thousands of people were roaming inside the book fair venue and many of them were buying books as well.
“Most of the visitors seem to have intention to buy books and this makes the booksellers hopeful about the matter that the book fair onward will bring good days for the writers and publishers this time,” he added.
This year, Nalonda is publishing 31 new books and 28 of them are available at the bookstall.
After visiting several bookstalls including Tamralipi, KathaProkash, Afsar Brothers, Akash, Anwesha Publication and some others, all the sellers said that at the second weekend of this month, they saw many readers of classic novels and fictions.
Publishers and sellers at Sheikh Russel Shishu Chattar said their sales increased on Friday.
Arsar Masud, proprietor of Progoti Publisher, said that they had good sales as well. “Pop-Up books or 3-D books are in high demand.”
Arsar said they had published four new pop-ups this year and all are in high demand.
However, private jobholder Rashedul Islam who brought his three-grader son Rafsan to the book fair said that the prices of books are comparatively higher this time. High price has forced him to purchase fewer books.
According to Bangladesh Publishers and Booksellers Association, book prices have gone up by 22 per cent compared to last year.
Saiful Islam, digital marketing and sales executive of Dhaka Comics, differed with them saying that they had tried their best to keep the prices of books at the same sates as before without compromising the quality.
“The prices of the books published this year increased,” he added.
Sources in Bangla Academy said that at least 260 books were launched yesterday, raising the number of publications in the book fair to 1,025.
