Book Festival begins at Bangalore University

BANGALORE: For the next ten days, Bangalore will see a rain of books.Thanks to Bangalore University and Indya Comics, ‘World of Books - 2011’, an international book festival that kicked off on Friday. A large number of books are likely to be sold at the book festival, with more than 250 book stalls featuring literature of different languages.Inaugurating the book festival, V S Acharya, Higher Education Minister said, “This is a very beneficial venture , especially at a time when books are losing prominence,” he said.Acharya also announced that the Government will sponsor underprivileged writers to print their works, and said that a sum of `5 crore had been set aside for this purpose.The inaugural ceremony featured prominent names from the literary and educational fields.Prof N Prabhudev, Vice-Chancellor, Bangalore University presided over the function, along with noted writers Dr U R Ananthmurthy, Prof G Venkatasubbaiah and Dr Siddhalingaiah, chairperson of the Kannada Pustaka Pradhikara.“A book represents a person. Thus, several people have been represented here at this festival. While television and internet is having a detrimental effect on the habit of reading, nothing can match the experience of reading a good book,” said Dr U R Ananthmurthy.To support such a large-scale festival, books worth Rs 5 crores will be purchased by 700 educational institutions under Bangalore University, along with University of Agricultural Sciences, Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences and others.Some of the main attractions in the festival are books by Ramakrishna Mutt, Karnataka Gandhi Smaraka Nidhi, Old and Rare book stall and an interesting Rs 99 introductory sale on any book, hosted by Gift Books.World of Books 2011 is on till September 11, and promises to be a haven for the discerning book-lover.