People peruse books at the book fair in Paradip. Telegraph pictures

Paradip, May 11: The ninth edition of the state-level book fair began in Paradip on Tuesday evening. Organised by Paradip Port Trust (PPT), the fair has provided an excellent platform for publishers across the state.

The fair ground in the town is abuzz with book lovers. Publication houses from across the state are here with a diverse range of books based on a number of themes and subjects. Nearly 62 stalls have been set up this time. Most of the leading publishing houses in the state are going all out to woo prospective buyers to the week-long fair.

“The sale is expected to pick up in the coming days. To keep the visitors entertained, cultural programmes, literary debates, poetry recitation and the release of new books are being organised everyday,” said S.K. Sahu, working president, Jagannath Lalit Kala Sansad. One comes across books on religion and philosophy as well as literature, including recent releases of books by leading authors. Syllabi related books for school and college students are also available.

This time, for a change, the publishers are targeting homemakers with more publications on gardening, recipes, cooking. To woo the younger generation, many books on hobbies are also available.

“The stalls housing books for college students are more crowded than others. But the homemakers are crowding the stalls exclusively selling books on cooking, housekeeping, interior decoration and designing, garment making and gardening. “A constant stream of visitors, particularly youths, is thronging the stalls selling books on personal hobbies. Older people are mostly drawn towards religious books. However, a select group of visitors is also picking up books from the Oriya literature stalls,” said Sadasiv Das of Chitrotpala publication house.

“I am fond of Oriya short stories. The book fair gave an opportunity to buy two of the newly released Oriya short story collections. I also bought a book on house decoration and had my purse permitted, I would have bought one more piece,” said Suchismita Pattnaik, a homemaker.

“To revive the declining reading habit among youths, these book fairs should be organised at regular intervals or at least twice a year. PPT should take an initiative in this regard. The fair could have been organised on a larger scale considering the fact that PPT is its organiser. The national-level publication houses are conspicuous by their absence. In future, they should be invited to participate at the event which would definitely attract more visitors,” said resident Dipti Prakash Pattnaik.

During the inaugural ceremony last evening, PPT chairman G. Jagannath Rao said a book fair of this nature would help reviving people’s reading habits that is on the decline since the advent of cable TV network and internet. “The new generation is getting more and more computer and net-savvy. But the pleasure that one gets out of reading books in the printed form is far greater that reading a text on the computer,” he said.