The enthusiasm among public in buying books remains high in Erode Book Festival 2011..

Mrs.P.Chitra,Senior Principal of SEVAI Shanthi School buys books

Erode: 7,August 2011:The 2011 edition of the Erode Book Festival which commenced at the VOC Park Grounds on July 30, has over 200 stalls with a large collection of books..The thinkers’ forum of Erode (Makkal Sindhanai Peravai) with the support of a number of service-minded private associations, organizes this book festival. The book festival attracted publishers from across the nation to exhibit thousands of books on a variety of subjects this year. A special stall exhibiting books on Bharathidasan and an exhibition of books printed 300 years ago were the centre of attraction. Over 1 crore books and educational DVDs and computer aided learning materials stalls have also been put up. In the books festival. Every evening, public meetings have been organized wherein several Poets noted Tamil scholars, film directors and actors, educationists add colour to the festival. The speakers included Professor K. Gnanasambandan, Poet Subbu Arumugam, Solomon Pappaiah, CPI leader D. Pandian, Tamilaruvi Manian, Nellai Kannan and actor Sivakumar.Peravai president T. Stalin Gunasekaran said,” We have taken this effort to encourage the labourers in the industries and their family members to develop the habit of reading,” The organisers had also designed a gift box with selected books worth Rs. 10,000 and gifted these boxes to the selected government schools.“The 2010 edition of the fair had witnessed sales to the tune of Rs. 5 crore. “We expect a significant increase this year,” Stalin Gunasekaran added. The 12-day book fair organised by the Makkal Chindhanai Peravai, has witnessed an overwhelming response from the people in the district and neighbouring regions. There is a 20 per cent increase in the number of visitors to the fair this year.  “Among the visitors, school and college students constitute a sizeable number. The enthusiasm among public in buying books remains high, which is a very positive sign,” Mr. Gunasegaram said.This year, voluntary organisations and independent donors had also come forward to purchase books and donate them to schools and public libraries. “We have received bulk orders from the voluntary organisations. Teachers from government schools also came to the fair to buy books using funds that had been donated to them. This is a welcome trend. A majority of the publishers participating in the fair have reported good sales this year.“The publishers expect more sales in the remaining two days as well,” Mr. Gunasekaran said. The special lectures that were being organised during the evening had received a tremendous response from the public, it was pointed out.The senior principal of SEVAI Shanthi Matriculation Higher Secondary school situated in Trichy district who visited this book fair mentioned that the stalls put up have a variety of educational books and they are very useful to the schools and college students and also for teachers.Students,teachers of  SEVAI Shanthi Matriculation Higher Secondary school of Arumbuhalnagar Trichy visited this exhibition on Sunday, the 7^th August and expressed their satisfaction of the arrangements of this book festival inclusive of all facilities for staying in the book fair for hours for selecting required books for their school.Dr.K.Govindarajan,President of South Zone Board of Continuing Education who visited the Book festival on Sunday appreciated the efforts of Erode Thinkers Forum, headed by Mr.T.Stalin Gunasekaran. –Govin