Bibliophiles of the national capital utilised the sunny Sunday afternoon to head for the ongoing World Book Fair in large numbers.
With the weather remaining pleasant, people started coming to the fair late afternoon on the second day. This year many publishers decorated their stalls in keeping with the theme – environment and climate change.
Like last year, this year as well, it were the children who kept the atmosphere at the book fair lively with their enthusiasm. Although Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Enid Blyton and Ruskin Bond remained preferred picks for children, there appeared an increase in demand of comic series and fables.
Six-year-old Nael Khan, holding a colouring book, was hopping from one stall to another searching for the Vikram Betal series. This was his first visit to the book fair and he was suitably excited.
“I am very happy to be here. There are so many colourful stalls and so many books. I want to buy as many books possible. I love reading fable tales, they are very interesting. I also want to buy books on Akbar-Birbal stories,” Nael told IANS.
{{/usCountry}}“I am very happy to be here. There are so many colourful stalls and so many books. I want to buy as many books possible. I love reading fable tales, they are very interesting. I also want to buy books on Akbar-Birbal stories,” Nael told IANS.
{{/usCountry}}Utkarsha Dixit, who came all the way from Gurgaon, was busy buying Chacha Chaudhary books.
“It is like reliving those childhood days. I remember attending book fairs when I was in school and college and buying comic books and my parents wouldn’t even stop me. I couldn’t visit last year so had already planned to visit this time. I will also buy Phantom series,” she said.
Shobit Aggarwal, who came from south Delhi with his son and daughter, said he believed that book fair gives children a platform to physically interact with books. “In an era of digitalisation it is important that children get a chance to feel the books. And events like this encourages reading habit. Children see others buying or reading books and that further motivates them to buy more,” Aggarwal said.
“It is actually good to see that the kids still have got interest in books. Even we get motivated to participate in the book fair. We also get a chance to understand what kind of books children prefer and we try to make more editions of such books,” Vijay Singh of Diamond Publication said.
The annual New Delhi World Book Fair is being held at Pragati Maidan and is co-organised by the National Book Trust (NBT) and ITPO. It will be on till January 14.
Follow @htlifeandstyle for more