Booklovers visiting the month-long Amar Ekushey Book Fair opined that the price of books offered by most of the publishers were too much high, which is disheartening. Mainly students are suffering from high prices. Visiting the book fair premises, it has been seen that most of the visitors were collecting catalogues, browsing titles and roaming across the fairground. They were not purchasing books due to the prices are so high compared to the past years.
Tanvir Hasan, a student of Dhaka University, alleged against the high price of books. He said that when a single book costs Tk around 400-500, it was hard to buy one’s favorite books, which are on the bucket list. He further said, books translated from other languages into Bengali were also very expensive.
Abdul Karim, another student from Dhaka University Sociology Department, said that he came to buy some books of his choice, but the price was too high that he can’t afford to buy them. “Most of the booklovers are student and it’s hard to purchase high price for a student”, he said.
Price should be reduced, he opined.
Sadiya Farhana, an honours student from Eden Mohila College and University, said that she came to the book fair to buy some quality books on different genres, but they were too expensive for students like her, who depends only on the tuition money.
Several publishers, however, said that printing costs a lot of money. Moreover, other expenses, like salaries of employees add to the final tally and make it impossible to lower the prices of books. Some of them claimed that although their expenses increased over the years, they did not raise prices and sale books at affordable rates.
They said that usually the book fair witnesses huge sales during weekends on Fridays and Saturdays and sale peaks during weekends at the latter half of the month of February. The month-long ‘Amar Ekushey Book Fair’ brings together a diverse mix of the country’s well-known writers as well as up-and-coming authors, readers, thinkers and entertainers on one stage.
Besides, being a spot for the booklovers, the venue of the month-long book fair is also for many an escape from the monotony of routine city life. People of all ages come to the fair, now on the Bangla Academy premise and at Suhrawardy Udyan, to pass a few hours in a secure and protected area.
Enjoying a respite from daily toil at workplaces or educational institutions, couples, teenagers and groups of young people are now seen whiling away time at the venue. This year Bangla Academy has set the theme of the fair as “Birth Centenary of Bangabandhu” dedicated to the iconic leader, marking his birth centenary
This year the land earmarked for the fair has been expanded to 8,00,000 square ft. A total of 873 units were allocated to 560 organisations. The authorities have allotted 179 units at the Bangla Academy ground to 126 organisations and 694 at the Suhrawardy Udyan to 434 organisations and a total of 34 pavilions have been allocated this year.
The fair remain opens from 3:00pm to 9:00pm from Sunday to Thursday; and from 11:00am to 9:00pm on Friday and Saturday. On February 21, the fair will remain open from 8:00am to 8:00pm. Like previous years, stalls for the mainstream publishing houses have been built inside the Suhrawardy Udyan while government organisations and the Bangla Academy stalls have been placed inside the Bangla Academy compound.
The book fair inside the Bangla Academy premises began informally in 1972 and it was institutionalised in 1978. The fair was then named Amar Ekushey Granthamela and subsequently a guideline for it was formulated in 1984. The month-long book fair is arranged every year in the month of February commemorating the sacrifices of our great heroes, who laid down their lives on February 21, 1952 for establishing Bangla as the mother tongue.
