One of the big events in Chennai’s Calendar is Chennai Book Fair that happens every year around Pongal festival. This is one of the largest book fairs in India, attracting over 10 Lakhs this year & having in display over 10 Lakh titles as well. Being an ardent reader of books & hailing from a publishing house family (LIFCO) I make it a point to visit this every year. This year the venue has been shifted to more spacious YMCA Grounds in Nandanam, making it convenient for me to visit. Bapasi, the publishers associations of South India which conducts the book fair every year with support of Tamil Nadu Government have made elaborate arrangements than previous years. When I went today it was quite crowded for morning hours. I was glad to see lot of small publishers and many new titles coming up in Tamil across subjects.
This year during this visit, I didn’t buy any books for me. I bought quite a few books for my son, including Amar Chitra Katha’s new releases on M.S.Subbulakshmi & Srinivasa Ramanujan; Pustak Mahal’s Children Knowledge Bank (I grew with this series during my childhood & have preserved my set, but now it is updated vastly & in colour).
After spending few hours I left for home, thinking with the barge of E-Readers (Kindle, iPad, Android) what will happen to these events few years from now when books are not available in physical format anymore. Where will people gather for discussing about books, exchange comments & other networking activities with interested minds. May be we will do all this and more through Virtual World in FaceBook?
Thanks for sharing with us.This is a good strategy to promote books to an audience who wouldn’t want to spend on high-costing books.The London Book Fair is a perfect example of an event of incremental popularity.
Sir,
I got a picture from your blog while Google search.I have used it my article about book fair in my blog.Please tell me if you have any objection regarding.I say sorry to used the photo without your prior permission
Muralidharan.
You are using it in your personal blog, so I have no objections. I am happy that my quick 2 second photo with iPhone4 is useful. And thanks for the acknowledgement.
Muthu Comics had put up a stall and on the first day a swarm of fans came to meet the editor
I also visited the Book Fair today, which, like you’ve mentioned has become an annual affair during the Pongal Vacation for me. However, though there is the presence of more stalls this year, it’s slowly turning into a Media Fair, rather than just a Book Fair, now that Television Channels ( Sathiyam TV, Zee Tv, etc ) and the erstwhile members from the Newspaper fraternity also present.
And another part I missed, was the platform shops selling the old books outside the venue. It was something I loved, both at Quaid-e-Millath and St. George’s ( The previous venueS).. But, this venue being on an arterial road, I guess the stalls haven’t been allowed !
Deepak, Yes I too miss the platform stalls & the old world charm of Quaid-E-Millath venue.