Rush for books despite price hikes

Ahnaf Talukder, who failed to visit the Amar Ekushey Book Fair last two years amid the Covid-19 situation, was cheerful on Tuesday as he could bring his four-year-old baby girl and eight-year-old boy to the fair-ground – Suhrawardy Udyan in the capital – this time.

"We feel that we have returned to our favourite place. The situation was not in our favour for the last two years which was why we missed the previous two editions," Ahnaf Talukder, a private service holder who resides at Uttara in the capital, told The Business Standard while strolling at the fair.

"The fair environment is excellent this year but the prices of books are a little bit higher. However, it is less than the hikes in paper prices," he said, adding that he bought several children's rhymes and ghost story books, three novels and one translation book.

Talukder was one of the thousands of people who visited the country's largest book fair on 21 February – International Mother Language Day – and gave the fair a festive look. They came from different parts of the capital and nearby districts. Many also came from remote areas to visit the fair on the special occasion. The fair venue got overcrowded in the evening with a gradual rise of visitors over the rolling of time.

Talking to the Business Standard, the fair organiser and participating book publishers said they are very happy with this year's visitor turnover since its inauguration on 1 February. In the past two years, the fair was organised with limited arrangements and saw a delay in commencement.

They also said they have returned to their pre-pandemic level sales this year, despite a hike in book prices.

"The sale of the book is much better this time than that of the last two years. Our books are being sold as expected. The presence of buyers and visitors is the same as the years before the pandemic," said Zahirul Abedin, owner of the publishing company Ittadi Grantha Prakash.

"Although we were forced to increase book prices, we tried to keep the hike under 20%, which eased burden on customers. We hope we can make good profits despite the hike," he told TBS.

Another publisher, Monirul Haque of Ananya Prakashoni, added that this edition of the book fair has been better than that of the last few years. "Although the prices increased a bit, buyers did not decrease. Sales are getting better."

Sheikh Shaharul Alam, owner of Bandhan Publications, told TBS that the larger venue of the fair this time is another reason behind the increased number of visitors. "It also gives visitors comfort. We hope we can overcome the losses we made in the past."

He also added that to keep book prices at an affordable level, they compromised with paper quality, particularly the weight of the papers. "Earlier, we used to print a book on 80 grams of paper on average, which has now decreased to 70 grams. Still, our sales are pretty good."

According to the data from fair organiser Bangla Academy, different publishers brought out 303 books on Tuesday (21 February), raising the total number of new books to 2,584 in the 21 days. The number of published books at the fair was 3,416 in 2022, 2,640 in 2021 and 4,919 in 2020.

Last year, the fair sold books worth Tk52.50 crore, which was only Tk3.11 crore in the previous year. Before the corona, the book fair used to sell books worth nearly Tk82 crore.

Traders are hopeful that they will return to pre-pandemic sales this year. "The fair got its previous momentum this time. Despite the price hikes, readers are buying books more than that of the previous years," Bangladesh Publishers and Booksellers Association Vice-President Shyamal Paul told TBS.

"We hope our sales will be higher than that of last year."

Publishers said books of popular writers such as Humayun Ahmed, and Imdadul Haque Milan are selling well. Besides, the demand for translation books has also been on the rise. The sales of novels and other books are lower, they added.  

"The book fair started with the spirit of 21 February to pay homage to the language. In 1990, Muntasir Mamun, Shahriar Kabir and I took the initiative to expand the fair venue to Suhrawardy Udyan. Today it has become the reality, which facilitates visits of a higher number of people.  The consciousness of the language has played a major role here," eminent author Imdadul Haque Milan told The Business Standard.

Anisul Hoque, another popular writer, added that the book fair began much later than the language movement. "The language hero did not only give us a language and a country, but also a book fair. Otherwise, it was impossible to arrange such a large fair, especially for the nation that ethnically lacks the habit of reading."