10 Reasons Why You Should Visit The Hyderabad Book Fair
The Hyderabad Book Fair is going on until 15th December this year, at NTR Stadium. Yesterday, they extended the timings for an hour from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.. The fair is organised by the National Book Trust (NBT), India. To promote small publishers and to help authors in launching their books, the organisers are conducting various book launch programmes.
Yesterday was my first visit to the fair. The moment I entered, I could smell the books. It was a rich mixture of old and new paper, stories, people and of course, books. I covered blocks A and B. While there were many books which I discovered, I ended up buying just four. I found the prices for old books to be higher than the new. There were five books by Graham Greene which I found, including The Power and The Glory--however, a price of Rs. 100 per book seemed ridiculous and so, I didn't buy it. Anyway, another visit is in order for the last day. I hope I can bag some that day.
My fortunate finds include - Hemingway's Men Without Women, Bradbury's Zen in The Art of Writing, Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray and other short stories, and assorted collection of 50 brilliant authors like Dorothy Parker, Kipling, Wolfe, Woolf, Faulkner, Shaw, Wells, Salinger, Huxley, etc.
If you are in Hyderabad and have not been here yet, here are my top 10 reasons why you must go.
1. Booksellers from Thane, Mumbai, Bangalore, New Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad--your only chance to access all of this (unless you're visiting all these places)
2. Well organised with a detailed list of bookstalls in the front--four blocks (A-D) and more than 300 stalls (will update the correct count by Sunday)
3. 10% discount on ALL books
4. Bargain the price on the books--good value for money
5. Rare, antique, old books' stall--a dream come true for book collectors
6. Discover bookstores--I found three bookstores about which I had no idea; Unique Bookstore, Liberty Bookstore, Books Wala. (The Best Bookstore also has a stall)
7. The daily events, authors' interaction
8. HUGE selection of books in Telugu and Urdu--regional delight
9. Discover libraries and membership details--we all know libraries are cool
10. The smell and feel of books
I will be updating this post with pictures after my visit on Sunday, the last day of the fair.
-
