As another cycle of book publishers’ calendar completed with the fall of the curtain on the Ekushey Book Fair 2014 on Bangla Academy premises and at the adjacent Suhrawardy Udyan on Friday, bookworms thronged to the ‘capital of books’ not to miss the last chance to collect some of the new entries.
Commemoration of language martyrs, festivity of Falgun and above all the earnestness of the writers and readers alike to have the smell of new books have gradually led to the staging of one of the rarest example of the spectacle of a nationhood centring its language and literature, and this year was no exception.
The publishers also heave a sigh of relief for ending their most busy moth of the year having a ‘great sale’.
Talking to UNB on the last day of the Ekushey Book Fair, some publishers claimed the sale of the fair was almost double that that of the last year.
Bidya Prokaah publisher Mujibur Rahman said, “We’ve a great sale this year. It’s almost double compared to that of last year.”
Mujibur Rahman mostly publishes popular fictions which sold great according to him. Besides, the fair has also accommodated a fair number of serious readers, he said.
“This is the last day of the fair and most of the visitors today are for serious books. They’ve also visited the fair earlier in the month, but have come to collect some of their picks they made during those visits,” he said.
Anannya Prokashani publisher Monirul Haque said he published the books of popular authors like Sumonto Aslam, Imdadul Haque Milon and Anisul Haque, and is happy with the sale.
“These books are mostly for the readers of young generation. But serious readers are also there, and the publishers have also come with some serious entries,” he added.
Officials at the stalls of Asiatic Society and Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) which publish research literatures also expressed their satisfaction over their sales.
Mestaur Rahman, an official at the BIDS stall told UNB that their sale at the fair has doubled compared to the sale of pervious year.
Julfiqur Ali at the Asiatic Society stall said they have sold a good number of copies of some of their voluminous encyclopedias, including Banglapedia and Encyclopedia of Flora and Fauna, and other books on history, archaeology.
Bangla Academy deputy director Anwar Morshed said until yesterday (Thursday) the sale of books published by Bangla Academy exceeded Tk 1.3 crore.
The average sale of the fair over the last few years was Tk 60-70 crore, he added.
This correspondent found out an impenetrable crowd in front of the Bangla Academy sales centre on the last day of the fair.
Visitors were waiting for hours together to enter the Bangla Academy sales centre to buy some of the dictionaries which have immense acceptability among the users.
Humayra Ahmed, a professional researcher and a visitor, told UNB that she rushed to the fair to complete some of her last picks on the last day of the fair.
“I’ve already visited the fair twice before and bought good books. But new books have arrived since then and I could not restrain myself from visiting the fair again to buy some of those,” she added.
According to the information centre at the fair, 2,798 new books were unveiled during the fair until yesterday (Thursday).
About 150-200 more books were expected to be unveiled on the last day.
Source: UNB Connect
