Students check the books at the fair on Monday. Picture by Jai Prakash

Prateek, a diehard fan of Sachin Tendulkar, cried: “God never retires!” even as the Mumbai Cricket Association felicitated the Master Blaster on Monday, ahead of his 200th and final Test.

No, Prateek wasn’t watching a live telecast of the programme. Instead, he was at the Patna Book Fair, buying a biography of the cricketer who has charmed every lover of the game for 24 years. “I really want to know more about Sachin. The stories untold, the facts not revealed,” said the 26-year-old, leafing through Sachin: The Story of World’s Greatest Batsman by Gulu Ezekiel.

First published by Penguin in 2002, the book has been reissued to mark the retirement of “the greatest batsman in the world”. Its success has pleasantly surprised booksellers.

“If I knew that the book would sell so well, I would have stocked a few more copies,” said R.K. Agarwal, the owner of the Penguin stall. “I’ve sold nearly all the copies I had.”

Sachin is not the only high scorer at the book fair this year. Ronaldo (Ronaldo: The Obsession for Perfection) and Kareena Kapoor (The Style Diary of a Bollywood Diva) have also opened their score with their biography and autobiography, respectively.

Gujarat chief minister and the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, too, has grabbed the attention of the youth. Published by Diamond Publications, Narendra Modi ka NaMo mantra has sold more than 50 copies over Sunday — the day the fair opened — and Monday. Sunil, the owner of stall D30, said: “After seeing how well the book is selling, I have stocked more copies of it on the front of the stall. Youths are the ones demanding this book.”

Vipul, 22, who bought the book on Monday, said: “My friend bought this book yesterday (Sunday). He told me it is a very good book. So, I’m buying it as well.”

But it is not just books on lives of celebrities that are doing well. William Dalrymple’s history of Europeans going “native” in the 19th century (The White Mughals) and the changing face of Bihar in this century (The New Bihar), edited by N.K. Singh, too, are doing well for themselves, as are novels by established writers like Shobhaa De and Khushwant Singh.