Book fair opens to great public interest

Illustrated copy of Shahnameh among books on display

LAHORE: The stalls were set, books on display and gates open as visitors started trickling in at the Expo Centre event before the Lahore International Book Fair was formally inaugurated on Thursday.

As many as 280 stalls of foreign and local publishing concerns have been set up at the centre in this regard. Federal Minister for Information Pervaiz Rashid said the fact that the fair’s organisers had managed to convene the event singlehandedly for three decades was an achievement in its own right. He said the fair’s organisers were also continuing the tradition of publishing in Lahore. “Soon the city had overtaken Calcutta (one of the first cities in the Indian subcontinent where publishing had commenced),” Rasheed remarked.



Education Minister Rana Mashhood Khan, who had arrived late at the venue, also cut a ribbon on the occasion.  The fair itself was a treat for the people with a wide variety of books on display. The works ranged from English fiction, autobiographies, and Urdu texts to religious books. Saad Malik, a regular at the fair, said a great number of people had flocked to the event this year. He said he had been looking forward to spending a quiet day browsing books. “I thought there won’t be many people here early on the fair’s first day but there is quite a crowd,” Malik said.

The discounts offered by all book vendors were a major draw for all those visiting. This included 15 per cent discounts by both, Readings and Liberty Books. The Readings stall had an extensive variety of colourful children’s books on display at the front that was a hit with the children. Summaiya Javed, who had brought her two-year-old nephew with her said books for those in his age group tended to be prohibitively costly. “I’ve found some books within the Rs300 price range. They are interactive so they appeal him,” she said.

“We have a flat 15 percent discount on books,” Mall of Lahore Liberty Books manager Fran D’Souza said. Additionally, they also had books priced between Rs100 and Rs200. “We have an eclectic mix of people coming here. It includes librarians, schoolchildren and college students,” he said. D’Souza said the company had managed to pull a larger crowd at the fair than at its standalone outlets.

The fair also provided an opportunity to select small publishers to display their titles and reach a wider audience. Bookgroup presented an interesting collection of Urdu books for children in grade one to eight. “The books we produce are of international standard,” Irfan Ahmed, the publisher’s sales representative at the stall said.



Another such publisher was Al-Nafees, a publishing house in Urdu Bazaar. While their stall also had a wide variety of imported books in English, what stood out among the titles display was an Urdu publication of theirs. The book—an Urdu writing workbook—allowed children to practice on it with a marker and then erase whatever they had penned.

A stall set up by the Cultural Centre of the Islamic Republic of Iran added to the variety of books on display.

The stall had the work of Persian writers translated into Urdu and English. An illustrated bilingual copy of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh was also on display.

Prominent discounts though were given on textbooks by various international publishers. These included books on medicine, politics and computer science amongst other subjects. Those displaying such titles included Jaypee Brothers, Newage and Pearson from India. Also present were Pearsons from the United States of America and John Wiley Publishers from the United Kingdom.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 5^th, 2016.