Low turn-out at Ekushey Book Fair

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Low turn-out of visitors marked the 25th day of the month-long Ekushey Book Fair on the Bangla Academy premises Wednesday due to an untoward situation at the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) headquarters in the capital, reports BSS.

Despite the poor attendance of the visitors, publishers were happy with the sales' position at the fair with 58 new arrivals on the day.

Some salespersons and publishers said although there was no rush of visitors on the day, their stalls did not witness any marked decline in the sales.

Many visitors were seemingly unhappy about the performance of the Bangla Academy stall this year.

'This is for the third time I have come to the fair for Bangla to Bangla dictionary of the Bangla Academy but the academy has failed to provide me with a copy,' said Rakib, a student of Dhaka University.

Similarly a large number of visitors expressed their resentment at the performance of the academy.

Sales at the Bangla Academy stall were less than that of the previous year. Until February 21, the academy stall sold books worth around Tk 4.5 million (45 lakh) as compared to around Tk 5.0 million during the same period last year.

Some 10,000 copies of English-to-Bangla dictionary and 8,000 copies of Bangla-to-English dictionary have so far been sold at the Bangla Academy stall.

The sales were higher in the previous years, according to the Bangla Academy stall sources.

Collection of poems led the tally of new arrivals on the day with 17 titles followed by 10 children's books, six novels, five collections on science and six books on travel.