Shawdesh Desk:
Bookworms, in thousands, thronged the Amar Ekushey Book Fair venue on the Bangla Academy and Suhrawardy Udyan premises on Saturday, soaring up sales of books and broadening smiles of publishers.
While visiting the country’s biggest book fair on its 15th day, many visitors were seen checking out and buying books, while others were waiting for their favourite authors to come to the fair.
With popular writers and their passionate readers, the fairground turned into a rendezvous for booklovers on the day. Especially, the fair venue got overcrowded in the evening and salespersons at different book stalls spent a hectic time, dealing with the pressure of readers.
Publisher of Pathak Shamabesh Shahidul Islam Bizu said the sale has been very good since the beginning of this year’s book fair and it has increased further in the last three days.
“Readers are exploring stalls everyday and we have been doing good business since the second day of the fair. But it seems that the presence of readers has increased significantly since last Thursday,” he told the Daily Sun.
According to the renowned publisher, his house has brought a number of new books in the fair and is getting huge response from readers.
“Among all our new books, the series of classical Bengali literature, including ‘Gitanjali’ and ‘Shesher Kobita’ by Rabindranath Tagore, ‘Collection of Shahidul Zahir’, ‘Collection of Shahaduzzaman’ and some books published in previous years have been going good,” he added.
Fictionist Swakrito Noman was seen giving autograph on his newly published novel, “Acharjo o Tar Olik Pandulipi”, sitting at the stall of Anyaprokash.
Speaking about the quality of book fair’s books, he said, “No author’s manuscript is published abroad without editing. Manuscripts may contain grammar, syntax, or spelling errors.
These errors are corrected and the manuscript is edited before publishing in the form of a book.”
“Apart from a handful of publishing houses, none of us have their own editorial board. Therefore, overall the quality of the book is not increasing. Publishers must have their own editorial board,” he added.
Many visitors complained this correspondent of the extremely dusty environment saying that the Bangla Academy has not fared well in ensuring a proper environment for readers.
Moazzem Hossain Bhuyian, a retired college teacher and a regular visitor of the fair, said, “The management of the fair seems weak this time. Adequate water was not sprayed in the field to curb dust. There is lack of light and cleanliness as well.”
He also expressed his dissatisfaction with the traffic management on the road in front of the fair and in front of the entrances.
Like all other weekend, the fairground wore a festive look with scores of children though there was no shishu prohor (hours dedicated for children) and the fair gate opened at 2:00pm instead of 11:00am due to admission test at the University of Dhaka.
On the fifteenth day of the book fair, a discussion programme titled “Life and Works: Syed Ali Ahsan” was held on the main stage of the book fair at 4:00pm with poet and journalist Abdul Hye Shikder in the chair.
Poet Muhammad Abdul Baten presented the paper while Tarek Reza and Mohibur Rahman were present as discussants.
Poet Shahidullah Farayezi and Muhibur Rahim discussed their new books at the Lekhok Bolchi stage.
According to Bangla Academy, some 175 new books hit the stalls on the day.
Today, on the sixteenth day of the fair, a discussion on “Life and Works: Zahir Raihan” will be held on the main stage of the book fair at 4:00pm.
Sohul Ahmed will present the papers while Mashiul Alam and Ahmed Mustafa Kamal will take part in the discussion with Mahbub Hasan in the chair.
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