The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The 'Amar Ekushey Boi Mela-2008' ended yesterday amid festive mood. The fair compound was overcrowded as the concluding day was a weekly holiday.

People waited in long queues to enter the Bangla Academy compound to say farewell to the month-long book fair. The long queues reached Shahbagh in one end and Curzon Hall on the other.

Cultural, Women and Children Affairs Adviser Rasheda K Chowdhury addressed the concluding ceremony presided over by Bangla Academy President Harun-ur-Rashid at the Academy premises.

The Adviser said a cultural session only for women would be reserved in the next year's fair like the children session this year.

"Who says that Bangalis do not read books? Even under a dreadful situation of commodity prices, the sale of books this year crossed Tk 20 crore," she said.

People were at the same time enthusiastic and sad on the concluding day of the festive occasion. Hamid a teen-aged boy said the fair is a gathering of hearts of Bangalis and it is always sad on the last day of the fair.

Ishrat accompanied by her family members said, "It is nice to see a huge crowd gathering at the fair to purchase books, it shows that the Bangalis did not forget reading books even in this age of electronic media."

It seems the Bangalis are increasing their reading habit, as the number of books published this year are higher than the previous years. People also bought more books than the previous years.

Books of more than Tk 20 crore were sold in this year's fair while the amount was only about two crore, last year. A sum of 2,578 books was published this year, which in the last year were 1,929. Seventy-six new books were published on the final day of the fair.