The trend of reading books on mobile devices has left its imprint at Amar Ekushey Book Fair.
Two e-book stalls — Sheiboi and Bengal eBoi — on the Bangla Academy premises drew huge crowds on Monday.
Journalist Mahiuddin Tuhin came to the book fair with wife and children.
Talking to bdnews24.com in front of the stall of Sheiboi, this journalist of the Financial Express said, “Reading books on mobile devices is very easy. It allows the luxury of reading anywhere. Also, roaming around with books on the palm of my hand is altogether a different feeling.”
“I have downloaded and registered apps from here. Let’s see how they go,” he said.
The organisation’s Public Relations Officer Prasenjit Deb said that at the stalls they were facilitating free download and registration of the app from Google Play free of cost.
“After registering and downloading apps, subscribers get more than 250 classic books free of cost. The remaining 150-plus books available in the apps are chargeable,” he said.
“Registration option will be given as soon as the app is downloaded. Books can be read on the device once the registration is completed,” he added.
Books written by writers like Rabindranath Tagore, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, whose copyright protection has expired, can be read free of cost. Payments are charged for books by contemporary writers.
Deb said Sheiboi was launched only a few months ago and already the app has recorded over 10,000 downloads and more than 50,000 registrations.
At the book fair itself it recorded around 6,000 registrations.
Bengal eBoi is offering similar services. An official of the organisation, Mahmood Sajal, said that even their app could be downloaded and registered free of cost from Google Play.
So far 200 books of different writers are available in their app. “Of these, 30 books are available for free. To read the chargeable books payment needs to be made online through mobile banking or debit card.”
Source: bdnews24
