Visit the Bangalore book fest tomorrow

The ninth edition of Bangalore Book Festival 2011 will be held from November 18 to 27 at Gayathri Vihar, Palace Grounds. The exhibition will be open from 11am to 8pm.The entry fare per person is Rs20. Entry is free for students. Books pertaining to medicine, engineering, architecture, ayurveda, astrology, fiction, etc, will be on display.

This year, the festival will enable people to browse books as well as give them a chance to go through the e-books. South India’s biggest-ever festival will have participation from country’s leading publishers, distributors, exporters, and importers with over a million titles under different categories and languages.

More than 330 booksellers will put up stalls at the expo. Besides fiction and non-fiction, textbooks and guides will also be sold.

“Bangaloreans have shown good reading habits, which is why there are many number of book stores and libraries in the city,” said Balaram Sadwani, president, Bangalore Book Seller and Publisher Association (BBPA). Besides book sales, the fest will have other attractions like seminars and cultural programmes.

The seminars will be held in collaboration with The Federation of Publishers’ and Booksellers’ Association of India. Topics for the seminar will include piracy of book production, marketing of e-books, etc. “Over the years, the business turnover for the exhibitor at the Bangalore Book Festival has been encouraging. This year, too, the expected turnover is over Rs17 crore,” said. Devaru Bhat, secretary, BBPA.