Bookworms throng Delhi Book Fair

Donning 3-D glasses, 10-yr-old Yash Sharma, was immersed in checking out giant dinosaurs in the new series of 3-D books available at the ongoing Delhi Book Fair. And he isn’t the only one. Kids, teens and adults, everyone thronged the various bookstalls to get a sneak peek at the various kinds of books on display, at the ongoing Delhi Book Fair 2011.

The capital’s most-awaited annual event saw almost 300 Indian and foreign publishers setting up camps at Pragati Maidan from August 27- September 4. Not to forget Delhi’s bookworms, who came in all shapes and sizes. From giggling schoolgirls, little kids trailing behind their parents, retired professors, to neighbourhood aunties, and teenagers, the fair was the hub for anyone and everyone who loves books.

With this year’s special focus on children’s books, the stalls were offering colourful books for kids and wooed them with colourful fun. But it was the new-age collection of Sound books, Pop-up books, Bath books (made of cloth), and E-books, which gave a stiff competition to the age-old paper books. In an age, when kids are hooked to Facebook and 3-D gaming, distributors and publishers came up with exciting new formats in books to introduce reading to kids.

Full report here Hindustan Times

Anna stir hits sales, claim DBF organisers

Anna Hazare might have been a hit among those fed up with corruption but his stir appeared to have affected the sales at Delhi Book Fair with publishers claiming that they witnessed a low turnout than usual.

The Book Fair began on August 27, at the height of Hazare's agitation for a strong Lokpal, and publishers feel that he drew away crowds and took more space in newspapers and local channels which otherwise would have ran more news stories on the fest.

"In the beginning the turnout was very low as Hazare drew all the crowds and we had to suffer losses. Only in these one or two days in fact, we noticed some increase in the number of visitors," Surendra Pandey, manager of Om Book shop who has a stalls in the fair, said.

He said his firm has been participating in the fair since 1995 when it started and it is the "lowest turnout that I have seen in all these years".

The India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO,) which organises the event, could not give any estimate on the turnout till now.

"We won't be able to give the number of visitors now.... Perhaps towards the end of the fair, we could give more accurate figures," Shailendra Bahadur, Senior Manager at ITPO, told PTI.

"As Anna phenomenon gripped the nation, people were either glued to their television screens or were personally at Ramlila Maidan," Rajendra Singh, Marketing Manager for Vish Books, said.

Full report here DNA

For those with wanderlust, Delhi Book Fair is the stop

The pull of the unknown, wanderlust and India's richness as a destination of great heritage are the flavours of the 17th Delhi Book Fair 2011.

It is hardly surprising: the official theme of the fair, which opened Saturday at Pragati Maidan, is travel and tourism.

More than 250 Indian and foreign publishers are hosted here in a bid to promote the domain of travel and tourism in India by linking it to travel literature, a genre whose appeal cuts across all divides.

"The boom in travel in the last decade has created a demand for cheaper travel books in India," Bikash D. Niyogi, managing director of Niyogi Books, told IANS. "Travellers look for books that they can read and throw away."

Three of Niyogi's new high-end travel titles include Mussoorie Merchant by Hugh Ashley Rayner, a volume on Chittorgarh Fort by Dharmender Kunwar, and Tracing Marco Polo's Journey: The Silk Route by Major H.P.S. Ahluwalia.

"In the lower price segment, we are publishing Hugh and Colleen Gantzer's travels in four volumes," Niyogi said.

One of the highlights of the fair is "The Highway on My Plate" by travellers and foodies Rocky Singh and Mayur Sharma. The anthology reviews more than 100 eateries across India, including the Tawang monastery kitchen in the heights of Aruanchal Pradesh.

The demand for updated destination guide books has been consistently growing because of increased domestic travel.

"In India, when people set out on a holiday, they do not think of buying a book," Atulya Dev Issar of Diamond Books said. "They buy it impuslisvely at the destination."

Full report here Daijiworld

Hindi fares well at the DBF

They brought books on Anna, but ironically it was Anna who took the limelight away. The opening day of the Delhi Book Fair at Pragati Maidan drew a lukewarm response, and publishers who had dotted pathways leading to the hall with posters of books on Anna Hazare expecting the social worker’s popularity to sweep the sales, were left disappointed because all roads in the capital led to Ramlila Grounds this weekend.
Assuring that there’s no cause for concern over the lack of crowds at the fair, V. K. Gauba, officer on special duty, at ITPO, said, “The footfall takes time to pick up. It’s a 9-day-long fair and we’ve seen in the past that the last few days have had the highest turnout. So we can expect the usual packed halls by the next weekend.”

While the focus this year will be on travel and tourism, participants also inform that alongwith English and Hindi, a sizeable percentage of books were in other 16 official languages. Raghuvir Verma of Prabhat Prakashan, says, “The 10 top selling Hindi publishers are regulars (at the fair), but vernacular languages like Urdu, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, have caught up. In fact a lot many visitors come looking for these languages and foreign stalls as well.”

Parth Kumar, Class 4 student of Vivekanand School, Vivek Vihar, was busy looking for Hindi versions of Anne Frank’s Diary and Ruskin Bond’s Rusty series. “They have a little problem following their favourite author JK Rowling in English and certain terms need to be explained. But the novels in Hindi are a breeze,” informs his mother.

Full report here Asian Age

Delhi’s date with books

It’s almost like a mini-paradise 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.

Full report here Hindustan Times

Authors brainstorm on corruption at Delhi Book Fair

Inspired by Anna Hazare's ongoing fast against corruption, writers, poets, playwrights and other authors are set to brainstorm on practical ways to tackle the social menace at the 17th edition of the Delhi Book Fair.

Beginning in the national capital on August 27, the week-long fair will see a seminar on "Corruption: Different Dimension" organised by the Authors Guild of India.

"There are movements all over the country and everybody today is talking about corruption. We thought, however, that as authors we should discuss the issue in an objective manner and try to find possible solutions," S Awasthy, General Secretary, Authors Guild of India told PTI.

Established in 1974, the guild with a membership of 1800 authors, has been participating in every edition of the the Delhi Book Fair.

The Book Fair organised jointly by the India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) and The Federation of Indian Publishers (FIP) is attracting as many as 300 Indian and foreign publishers and organisers say they expect 5 lakh visitors this year.

Full report here Outlook

DBF to focus on travel, children's books

The Delhi Book Fair 2011, beginning at the Pragati Maidan here on August 27, will have travel and tourism as its theme, with a special focus on children’s literature and the growth of e-book business, an official said.

More than 300 Indian and foreign publishers will take part in the fair to be inaugurated by Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal.

The fair will be organised jointly by the India Trade Promotion Organisation and The Federation of Indian Publishers.

“Fair will be more aggressive this year because the publishers will be competing for the Excellence in Book Production award 2011,” said a spokesperson for the Indian Trade Promotion Organisation.

Three major literary events involving children are being billed as the highlights of the fair, the spokesperson said.

Discover the Genius in Your Child, How to Study Intelligently and Ghummaked Lok Katha (Roving Folk Tales), will see participation of children from schools here and from the National Capital Region.

Full report here Hindustan Times