Chennai Book Fair still feels personal to the digital generation

“Some of my friends and I usually order books online, but nothing beats the same as coming to the Book Fair with your friends and slowly browsing through shelves. That experience is unmatched. There’s the stereotype that Gen-Z doesn’t read, but that’s not always true,” says 24-year-old Sankruthii, stepping out of the 49th edition of the Chennai Book Fair 2026 with a cloth bag weighed down by her finds. “Since bookstagram and BookTok hyping certain books, it does pull in a lot of us younger readers,” she adds.

The YMCA ground in Nandanam is packed with nearly 1000 stalls, and this year, the fair hosts 428 Tamil book stalls and 256 English book stalls from various independent and big publications. In 2026, when there are e-books, impulsive online buys and Gen-Z being labelled a ‘chronically online’ generation, the fair still manages to pull the younger crowd who were browsing titles in both Tamil and English.

Bilal Abdul Majeed, a 22-year-old audio engineering student at KM Conservatory, spoke about the tactile experience of visiting the book fair. “I came here looking for poetry books, but I have ended up buying something completely different, like Sigmund Freud. That’s the magic of a massive book fair like this, which will not go out of style,” he says. Another KM Music Conservatory graduate, Shehnaz, said that this was the first time she was attending the Chennai Book Fair and found it vast compared to the other book fairs in different cities.

There were also groups of young people moving together from stall to stall, mostly around the English sections browsing through literary fiction and non-fiction during the festive week. It was almost like a temporary ‘third space’, a break from routines and algorithms.

“Most of Gen-Z has access to books digitally, and we don’t really go hunting for physical copies anymore. Books are expensive for students too, which is why the fair does not largely attract young people,” says Gayathri Mouna, a 5th-year law student visiting with friends. “But the book fair is also where we get discounts. In Chennai, we usually hangout at malls and cafes, so this is definitely special, and an annual ritual,” she adds. Ms. Mouna also mentions that the sheer scale of the fair made her stumble upon a political non-fiction title she had been looking for, one that was not available online.

Aarthi S., a 22-year-old techie, says how constant scrolling and ‘brain rot’ have made it harder to pick up books these days for most of her peers. Her friend Smruti, however, sees it differently, sharing how Gen-Z is caught up in upskilling, certifications and surviving the job market with little time for leisure reading. Still, both say they are consciously gravitating towards Indian literature, which they find more relatable.

While the Gen-Z crowd came to the Book Fair for different reasons, there was a shared perspective on how attending the event is a celebration, an annual tradition that also partly evokes childhood nostalgia. Here, readers also browse, stumble and choose freely away from what is trending online.