The Delhi Book Fair has kicked off; it celebrates travel and tourism this time around
I t's almost like a miniparadise for book lovers and distributors, as the 17th annual Delhi Book Fair kicked off in the Capital on Saturday. With over 300 publishers participating in the fair, there are thousands of books to choose from. “This year, the theme of the fair is travel and tourism. We have 625 stalls and 300 publishers who are participating, and we also have delegates from countries such as UK, Pakistan and the US,“ says Shakti Malik, general secretary, The Federation of Indian Publishers.
Among the participating publishers are Penguin, Rupa & Co, S Chand, Pustak Mahal. Besides networking opportunities for publishers, the fair is also a great venue for book launches and workshops.
“People coming into the book fair and browsing through the books is a very different experience from checking out books at a store that can stock limited number of books. At our stall, we will be talking about two books Pakistan Beyond The `Crisis State' by Maleeha Lodhi and The Punjab Bloodied Partitioned And Cleansed by Ishtiaq Ahmed,“ says Kapish Mehra, managing director of Rupa & Co.
Though book fairs happen every year, their charm remains intact. “It is a different experience to look at books in the fair. I have started a literary society in my school and we always go to the book fair to buy books for the school library,“ says Prashansa Taneja, who writes a blog on books.
“However, I feel that book fairs are losing out on portals such as Flipkart where you can buy discounted books online. The discounts at the book fair are very less, and it would be great if they can give more discounts,“ she adds.
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