For us, this year was more of a ritual visit than to buy (not to boast, but
we now have more books than we can ever read all our lives with the library
thingy) – I still ended up buying a few childrens books apart from:
- dalai lama (by Muruganantham)
Muruganantham presented me with a copy of ‘dandi yathirai’ for the help I
extended during the writing of the book – Thank you, Muruganantham. I
thought it rather amusing (and sad) to see that he himself had to ‘buy’ a
copy to give me one… Vikatan stands a notch down than before in my view.
One book I was expecting, that didnt make it was Kanchi.
chandamama publications collector edition was pathetic and didnt trigger any
feelings to own one. It was appaling that the person in charge kept
insisting that he would give 10% discount on subscriptions over and over
again (as if we didnt know he had to – to participate in the fair)
Pricing – I also find it amusing that both publishers and book shops price
the book at MRP and provide it at a 10% discount – I mean, shouldnt
publishers sell at 10% less than their cost?
Duplicates – I guess if we remove the duplicate showpieces of books like
those like Kalki and Sandilyan among the various stalls, they alone would
shrink the size of the book fair by 10-20% so much repetition. I understand
that every stall-owner wants to sell more, but it adds to the monotonity of
the visitors – over years, the visit has become more and more boring – more
of meet the friends, rather than find a new treasure (book)
