Md Moniruzzaman :
The Amar Ekushey Book Fair saw a high turnout on Friday with a great number of visitors, readers, writers and publishers’ gatherings and traders also reported good sales also.
The bookworms started to swam at the fairground after just opening the fairground and the book fair was totally occupied with great crowds in the afternoon.
n the day, there was difficult to uncover any place at the Suhrawardy Udyan to take rest or take a breath smoothly.
The stall attendants were seen busy dealing with the visitors and smiles flashed on the face of the publishers as holiday crowd flocked to different stalls and pavilions.
The publishers also expressed satisfactory as the sales have been increasing since the fair inauguration and the Friday drew attention of book lovers.
“The sales have been satisfactory from the beginning of the fair. This Friday crowded the flocks of the people and thereby the sales also good,” Abdur Rahman, stall manager of Annesha Prokash said.
The stalls attendees of this stalls also said that the book of Humayun Ahmed including ‘Rupa’, ‘Himur Hata Koyekti Nilpodm’, ‘Tondrabilas’ and some others writers book including Junayed Islam are more favorite in the readers.
However, a good number of children with guardians thronged in this morning and enjoyed the Sisimpur shows at the children’s corner and spent their time with Sisimpur characters – Halum, Ikri, Tuktuki and Shiku.
Tanjib Islam, stall attendant of Tamlolipi Publication, said, “Sales are getting well. But, two or one within five people who come to the stall buys books. The book of prominent writers like Muhammed Zafar Iqbal and the book of popular face sales more.”
Sumon Mia who came to Dhaka city to sit in an examination for job said,”After finishing the examination, I rushed to the book fair as I never want to miss the chance to enjoy the book fair.”
On the nine consecutive days of the fair, 171 new titles have published that day. A discussion was held titled ‘remember: S Wajed Ali’ on the main stage of the book fair.
However, a drawing competition for children was held on the Bangla Academy premises where a total of 695 children took part at the competition in three categories. Prof Nisar Hosain, Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts of Dhaka University inaugurated the competition.
Besides, the primary selection of children’s recitation competition was held at Abdul Karim Sahitya Bisharad auditorium on this day where a total of 312 participates took part.
The book fair opened on 11am and continued till 9pm.