Books in English have simply vanished from shelves in Patna Book Fair. But don’t think bibliophiles have devoured all in the first four days — rather English books are hardly found in the book fair stalls.
The 21st edition of the book fair is bigger and grander from its earlier versions but has failed to attract English readers, as Penguin and Paperback — the two major publications of English non-fictional books — are missing this year.
K.K. Agarwal, owner of Indian Book Centre, the dealer of Penguin books in the city, failed to participate in the book fair this year because of health issues. He said: “I am already missing the fair campus. I have got my hand fractured because of which I decided to stay away from the fair.”
The organisers also feel the pinch. “We have sent invitation to almost all the leading English publication houses. Very few of them have turned up,” said Ratneshwar, convener, Patna Book Fair.
The book fair has English books of genres like academics, motivational or competitive books. Anu was disappointed when she could not find her favourite books. “The fair does not have any dedicated stall for English novels. I have browsed almost all the stalls but could not find novels of Shobhaa De, Ravinder Singh, Durjoy Dutta and Khushwant Singh,” said Anu, preparing for civil services exam.
Anchal, along with her friend Kirti, was seen enquiring about Chetan Bhagat’s Half Girlfriend at almost all the possible stalls. “We thought that we will get the novel here. Better to order on Flipkart and Amazon instead of wasting time is strolling around for one book,” said Anchal, a student of AN College.
Autobiography and biography are hot cakes though. After the political blame game, Nitish Kumar and Narendra Modi are giving each other a tough competition in the field of literature. The biography, Single Man: The Life and Times of Nitish Kumar, is giving a tough competition to The Common Man — Narendra Modi by Kishore Makhwana. “We have sold almost 50 copies of Single Man yesterday soon after it was released. The autobiographies and biographies are top on the bestsellers’ list,” said Amit Sharma, manager, Prabhat Prakashan.
On the other hand, the fair is flooded with all varieties of Hindi books. “There has been almost 20-30 per cent increase in the readers of Hindi. Prem Chand is all time favourite of the readers of Patna,” said Amit of Prabhat Prakashan.
Pustak Mahal, the leading Hindi publication house, is quite satisfied with the sale number. “I am really amazed by the sale figure this year,” said Mahesh Kandpal, in charge of Pustak Mahal stall.
Some publishers admitted e-books and e-shopping sites, including Flipkart and Amazon, have affected sale to some extent also. “There has been a major drop of almost 30 per cent in the sale this year. The reason behind the poor sale figure is offers on e-shopping sites,” said Sunil Sharma, manager, Kitab Ghar.
