The annual book fair currently ongoing at the People’s Plaza grounds has a host of about 110 book stalls primarily from the twin cities and New Delhi, besides a smattering of stalls from other cities like Chennai, Vijayawada, Ananthapur and so on. Quite natural to a book fair, the genres available covered a wide variety from fiction to education to self-help and spirituality. The most popular books to be picked up are always fiction though salesmen at the stall did register an increase in subject tutorials. “Activity books in subjects like science and maths for children in class four to seven are quite popular. Mostly picked up by parents, quite a few teachers have also picked a few for their school libraries,” observed Chari who was managing the New students educational needs. Agreeing was Rajan, a salesman at a DVD stall from Delhi that was selling a mix of tutorials, who said, “Educational tutorials have been the most picked up DVD’s as compared to software tutorials and nursery rhymes. We also sell management tutorials, but they aren’t that preferred.”Among Indian authors, R K Narayanan and Chetan Bhagat still rule the roost with their books Malgudi Days and Revolution 2020, respectively. While not a very ideal combination of authors, the fact that R K Narayanan still sells is a tribute to old school literature.Among the younger crowd, the Geronimo Stilton series have been very popular. Published by Edizioni Piemme of Milan, the book’s author which is credited as Geronimo, follows the travels of the rodent of the same name, an editor for a fictional magazine.Telugu books not so popularWhile the fair did host a heartening number of Telugu book stalls, the people buzzing around it weren’t so many. The stalls however give buyers a wide variety to choose from — elementary Telugu stories to spiritual books to Telugu literature. Said Bhagyalakshmi of Manchi Pusthkalu publications, “We have a lot books and story cards in very simple Telugu because not many children or young adults know how to read Telugu properly. But, as compared to how bad I expected the situation to be, it is actually much better and maybe things might not get as bad. However, parents need to emphasise on the importance of children learning their mother-tongue first and then as many foreign languages as they like.”
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