Book fair in Tiruchi has been attracting high footfall

The ongoing book fair organised by the Tiruchi district administration and the Directorate of Public Libraries in association with Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India (BAPASI) has been seeing a high footfall of residents and schoolchildren this year, raising hopes of a revival of the reading habit.

“The fair has provided a platform for local booksellers and authors, besides publishing entities from other cities to showcase their work in Tiruchi. This is an ideal way for the public to stock up on their books under one roof,” P. Vijayakumar, secretary of Tiruchi District Writers’ Forum, told The Hindu.

Stalls offering bulk discounts were busy on Friday, as schoolchildren browsed through puzzle books and comics.

“This year, the business has been better for some genre such as suspense, self-motivation and biographies. We have brought mostly English books to attract the young readers,” said a sales representative at the Book World stall.

The demand for textbooks and preparatory material for competitive exams was high, said many booksellers.

Visitors said that since Tiruchi had very few dedicated book stores. The fair was a good opportunity for readers to pick up volumes for their personal collection.

“Traditional book stores in the city faced stiff competition from online devices and e-commerce, leading to the closure of many companies. However, of late, there has been a resurgence of interest, especially among young people, to shop personally for physical copies of books. We hope this trend will continue with a positive outcome,” said a representative of Tiruchi Book House, a distributor for Indian and international publications since 1995.

The fair, featuring over 100 publishers, is on at St. John’s Vestry School premises until February 22.