Book fair boon for youths

People of all ages yesterday got the last weekly holiday to purchase their favourite books at the month-long Amar Ekushey Granthamela 2016, which closes tomorrow.

Not only as customers, a good number of youths, including students from universities and colleges in the capital, worked at the stalls of the book fair.

They said they enjoyed the time at the fair and passed busy times with the last weekend crowd.

Most of the stalls of different publishing houses have two or more units, and the owners said they needed two to six tall attendants to monitor every single stall.

Among them, a number of students every year willingly join the team of stall attendants, which bring them a handsome amount of money as well.

It gives the attendants, both male and female, the opportunity to learn about new books and become familiar with various types of books.

Many of them said they also got the opportunity to meet their favourite authors at times and thus enjoy the work.

Sumi Easmin of Chayabithi publication has been working for the first time as a stall attendant. “I usually assist in different works of stalls like bringing and selling books, opening and closing stalls and maintaining it throughout the month-long fair," she said.

Some of them said they saw the work positively because as students they could get a chance to earn a handsome amount of money and gain experiences.

The youth and teenagers crowded the stalls where juvenile classic volumes, detective stories and novels and thrillers are available.

At the stall of Sheba Prokashoni, it was almost an impenetrable crowd yesterday. The books published by Sheba sell a lot because the books are cheap and offer translated classics.

Meanwhile, the book "Adh Dozen Bhai Bon", written by Momtaz Shahid, the younger sister of late writer Humayun Ahmed, was selling well at the fair.

Liakat Ullah, the owner of Student Ways, which published the book, said the book was for the admirers of Humayun Ahmed and that they sold books at low prices.

Most of the people who visited the fair yesterday were seen leaving with bagfuls of books.

The fair saw the arrivals of 3,212 new books till yesterday.

In 2015 the number of the new arrivals till the 27th day of the fair was 3,510 and in 2014, it was 2,837. Poetry books dominated the list of new arrivals last year.

According to the 27 days' statistics at the fair information centre, the new arrivals include 820 poetry books, 496 novels, 448 titles of short stories, 167 of essays, 134 of children literature, 90 of the Liberation War, 48 of science, 47 of travel, and 42 books of history and others.

A total of 179 titles hit the fair yesterday.

Meanwhile, a memorial meeting was held in remembrance of the attack on progressive writer Prof Humayun Azad on February 27, 2004. The speakers demanded immediate disposal of the case regarding the attempted murder of the writer and exemplary punishment for the perpetrators.

Another discussion was held at the central stage of the fair on the 50th anniversary of the historic Six-Point programme, which was said to have paved the way for the country's independence.