The month-long Ekushey Book Fair 2020, an event close to the hearts of book lovers, ended yesterday with vibrant number of bookworms.
A total of 4,834 books hit this year’s fair, including that of 63 released as of February 20.
On the last day of the event, the fair witnessed the highest number of crowds as thousands of booklovers thronged to seize the last opportunity to collect books of their choices.
Booksellers were seen struggling to manage that huge bookworms while publishers expressed satisfaction over sales.
Bangla Academy arranged a closing ceremony in the evening at the main stage of the fair with the participation of a number of noted personalities and writers, academicians.
This year, a total of 130 new books on poetry, research, liberation war, essay, adventure novel, and kids’ books on the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman were published at the fair.
Bangla Academy published 26 new titles on Bangabandhu’s life and political views, including Bangabandhur Andolon Koushol O Hartal (Bangabandhu’s method of Protest and Strike).
Published by Bangla Academy, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had unveiled “Amar Dekha Naya Chin” (The New China I Saw), the third book authored by Bangabandhu, at the fair.
At least four books were published on Bangabandhu’s speeches by various publishers.
A corner titled “Bangabandhu Path,” was set up on the fair premises to spread out Bangabandhu's ideology among the people, especially young generation with seating facility for the readers. Young writers experienced a surge of fan bases on the last day of the fair.
“We are satisfied with the sales and books authored by young writers, including Sadat Hossain, Arif Azad and Abdullah Al Imran, are sold well,” said Tonni Habiba, a senior sales executive at Likhalikhi Publication.
This year, the authorities have allotted 179 units on the Bangla Academy ground to 126 organisations and 694 on the Suhrawardy Udyan to 434 organisations. A total of 34 pavilions were allocated this year.
Like previous year, big publishing houses built stalls on Suhrawardy Udyan ground while government organisations set up stalls on the Bangla Academy premises.
Began in 1972, the book fair was institutionalised in 1978. The government then named as the fair Amar Ekushey Granthamela before formulating a guideline in 1984 to organise the fair.