Stalls of Bangla Academy have drawn the attention of book lovers as around 76 categories of publications ranging from literature to history to philosophy are on display at its six stalls at the Amar Ekushey Book Fair.
"The sales are satisfactory from the very beginning of the fair . . . our stalls are attracting visitors from children to adults due mainly to our different types of publications," said Jalal Ahmed, Bangla Academy's Director of Sales, Marketing and Reprinting Division and Member Secretary of Amar Ekushey Book Fair organising committee.
Jalal said three books on Bangabandhu: Amar Dekha Noya Chin (New China 1952), Oshomapto Attojiboni (Unfinished Memoirs) and Karagarer Rojnamcha (Prison Diary) are still among the top-selling books in the stalls of Bangla Academy. Bangla Academy's publications include dictionaries and encyclopedias, history, geography, philosophy, mathematics, science, education, journalism, language movement, liberation war, culture and biography.
As of now, Bangla academy has published 101 books-28 new ones while 73 reprinted. Six more will also be published at the book fair. Of the 107 books, 44 books are on this year's fair's theme "Golden Jubilee of the Liberation War, the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Language Movement".
Ten books on Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman have been published in the book fair so far bringing the total number of books on Bangabandhu to 47 as Bangla Academy has a plan to publish a total of 100 books on Bangabandhu marking his birth centenary.
"Five more books will also be published in the fair, if it is extended up to March 17. However, we hope that we will be able to publish the rest of the books by the next year," said Mubarak Hossen, Director of research, compilation, and dictionary and encyclopedia department of Bangla Academy.
Though the first three days of the book fair were dull with the low turnout of visitors and many publications barely finished setting up their stalls, from Friday the fair has been witnessing a good number of visitors along with a large turnout of visitors of all ages on last weekends, he said.
"Books on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, liberation war, language movement, academic and job related books like dictionaries and encyclopedias, are being sold much," said Mintu Sutra, manager of one of the stalls of Bangla Academy.
While visiting the stalls, people were seen gathering and making crowd at the stalls while the stall attendants were seen busy in describing the features of different books and selling. Since its establishing, the Academy had published 5,390 books till February 2022.
There are six stalls of Bangla Academy to exhibit and sell books on Book Fair, where two were located to Bangla Academy premises and others four were SuhrawardyUdyan. The book fair will remain open for all from 2 pm to 9 pm on working days and 11:00 am to 9 pm on public holidays with a one-hour break for lunch and offering prayers till February 28.
A total of 776 stalls have been allocated to 534 organizations. The authorities have allotted 142 stalls to 102 organizations at the Bangla Academy ground and 634 stalls to 432 organizations at the Suhrawardy Udyan.
Last year, a total of 834 stalls were allocated in favour of 540 organizations. Moreover, a total of 35 pavilions have been allocated this year. Apart from this, there are 127 stalls at Little Magazine Chattar, which was 140 in 2021, 155 in 2020.
Source: BSS
