As most of you know the great Chennai book fair starts on Jan 4, 2008.
I would like to find a few books and which stall they may be available especially 'Vichitra chithan', Diwakar's works and has Gokul's novels published already?
Also as we have so many authors here, can we list some interesting but may be hard-to-find books that might be available this time in the fair?
Chennai Book Fair starts on 4th the friday. Cm is inaugurating it. the location is St. Georges school opposite pAchaiyappaas college on PH road. on holidays timings are 11 am to 8. 30 pm on other working days its 2. am to 8.30 pm. true book lovers should visit the fair during the starting hours, and can get some wonderful browsing time, free from crowds.dont worry about the lunch for the canteen is excellent. evenings especially during holidays would be extremely crowded though 'Bapasi' has taken some crowd control measures with an unprecedented 6 entrances.
Book fair is well organized. It is arranged according to Publishers. Some Category wise boards and display will be there. yes ofcourse there are some discounts but they depend on the publishers.
Enjoy your visit to the FAIR. As our members said go early to avoid crowd... otherwise its jam packed..
Theres a standard 10% off on all books... but the publishers also add other discounts... last time I got a technical book worth 250 for 75... but not all books are available at throwaway prices... you can expect a 10-20% off on most books.
The stalls last years were by publisher... am guessing it would be the same this year too...
just back from the book fair. cM did not come because of the rains. but the stalls are open.
10% discount is mandatory. but many give a little more because of the change problem.
I am repeating, there are 6 entrances and 6 exits. duruing the big crowd time you may be able to see only half the stalls. so make it a point to visit it in the mornings on holidays, and afternoons on working days
I have been a very active reader of this group. Thanks to one of the mails that I read in this group I was able to recoginize Kaviri Maindhan and I bought the entire pack. Also, I went to University publications to get KAN's Colas, but it had got sold out by the time i went. I had got KAN's Foreign References of South INdia instead. I also bought a few of Sundara Ramaswamy's and came back.
All this thanks to the references from this forum.
I was disappointed that none of the PS books there had come with the paintings published in Kalki periodical. If anyone can let me know of such a publication I would deeply appreciate.
I will post my comments on Kavirini Maindhan once I complete it.
This sunday i went to book fair. I bought PS,SS,Parthiban kanavu,Vengayin mainthan,Balakumaran's books.
I saw Cholargal by K.A.N Sastri.Actually i have the plan to but the cholas by KAN sastri. But when i open the book, i found that reference like see volume XVII of SSI,see page 112 of SSI.
I think SSI is SothIndian Inscription. IS there book of SSI?Shall we buy that? How can i read that Cholargal book? Pls guide me regarding this.
> I saw Cholargal by K.A.N Sastri.Actually i have the plan to but the cholas by KAN sastri. > But when i open the book, i found that reference like see volume XVII of SSI,see page 112 of SSI. > > I think SSI is SothIndian Inscription. > IS there book of SSI?Shall we buy that? > How can i read that Cholargal book? Pls guide me regarding this. > > > Saathmeeka > hi,
the cholas by KAN is more like his inferences from inscriptions - he is quoting you the ASI publication from which he gleans these inferences.
Epigrahica indica and south indian inscriptions are available from ASI
however, these are quite advanced reading - ie historical fiction is different from these.
to put things in perspective
culverts >>>transcipts gathered in EI and SSI ( give mostly the translation and a brief explanation)>>>> cholas for eg is a compilation of these explanations into a chronology >>> kalki takes three pages out of this to weave PS.
> Hi, > > http://bookfair08.blogspot.com/ > > This website gives daily updates about book fair and says KAN's > Cholas is available at New Century Book House stall too. > > Regards > A.Kumaraguruparan
I went there yesterday and it is bigger than past years. 1 day is not enough to see everything.
Try to visit small publishers' stalls - they have a variety. I found some interesting books by one "Meyyappan" publisher about Nadu Kal ( hero stone), Cheppedu (Copper Plates), Birds & Plants of Tamilnadu etc., kept in a rather unnoticeable stall. These people seem to have a passion for books and need patronage.
Some big time publishers such as "Vanathi" doesnt seem to have changed a lot or have a variety. Seems to be still counting on "Theivathin Kural" and some "Sandilyan" series primarily. A complete set of "Theivathin Kural" and "Kurai Onrum illai" will make a Hindu home completely blessed though.
Palaniappa Bros - They are still publishing the series "Nattukku Ulaitha Nallavar." Guess this series is alive for more than 40 years. You can buy "Madrasa Pattanam" book by Narasiah here.
At Viketan stall, you can book the Tamil Encyclopedia for Rs. 3000.
At another unnoticeable stall, they were keeping the books on Tamilnadu Coinage by Dinamalar Editor, only a few copies were found though. His latest book on "Late Roman Coins on Tamil Nadu" is very well illustrated and printed nicely.
PS books are still an attraction and lot of stalls are keeping our Venkat's "Kaviri Mainthan." I was at his stall for sometime and I could see lot of interest on this book. Copies were getting evacuated pretty fast! & thanks to him for allowing me to keep my bounty at his stall for sometime that I could go for 2nd and 3rd rounds.
Many stalls are keeping NCBH's "Cholarkal VOl 1 and vol 2" in Tamil. People buying this book also take a look at "History of Tamilnadu, Chola Peru Venthar Kalam" - this is a 2 Volume book, authentic and available in a stall by Institute of Tamil Studies.
3 years ago, I made a complaint to several book publishers about non availability of Tamil book for children of the age 3-10 years and asked them to compare with that in English. They all said "who buys?" I could see a difference now - there are lot of books in Tamil for our children now.
There are lot of CDs for pre & primary school children too in Tamil.
1 question still haunts me... There are thousands and thousands of books printed and kept here by desperate, passionate publishers and authors. Will they ever be able to sell these books and atleast take their investment ?
Buying a book will certainly help somebody in the chain to earn a meal.
> > 1 question still haunts me... There are thousands and > thousands of books printed and kept here by desperate, > passionate publishers and authors. Will they ever be > able to sell these books and atleast take their > investment ? > > Buying a book will certainly help somebody in the > chain to earn a meal. >
I came out of the fair with the same question in mind. Also I wonder, whether the book fair is the only place where the tamil books are being bought by the public? Just taking me it has been years since I bought a tamil book at a shop and it is the 3rd year in a row that I am buying the books from this fair. Has anyone felt the same way??
As IT people, we are obligated to visit stores like "Odyssey", "Landmark" etc., where very few Tamil books are kept and no one seems to buy them anyway. What a pity.
Me and my cousin who is also in IT use to visit book shops giri trading -- If I am in chennai and if I am in Madurai there are shops which have many tamizh books.
Appreciated! Have you been to "Sarvothaya Ilakkia Pannai" at Madurai? Nice collections right! I'm a frequenter there.Which area in Madurai are you from?
Hi Madurai'la tamil book shopkku panjamaa? there is one full street of tamil books shops kalmandapam(????)
Yes Vk I agree that people with the same old stuff found a very cold shoulder with the buying public this time.
to be very honest book publishers seem to bifurcate the readers as two. those who visit the book fair, buy a load full and seldom read them all. second the reader who goes to shops,browses thro the books and reads reviews and buys.
the general opinion is that the first crowd rarely visits the book shops. of course some do, but definitely the 25000 who visited on sunday book fair wouldnt be going to book shops.'
the main aim of book fair is to cater to the buyer who never treads into a shop. this year i saw ponniyin selvan as a pocket novel. I would need a magnifying glass to read thro this. reven in the book fair the real connieseur of books arives early and leaves late. the general crowd comes later
for 4 days I have been sitting in the fair. I am off to sikkim tomorrow . will miss the crowds.
I went to the book fair last Sunday. It was an ocean of books. I was lucky enough to grab a copy of "The Chozhas" (Colas sounds strange to me) by NKS at the Madras Univ. stall. There were only two copies available at that time. The university can concentrate on the print quality of the book. The printing technology has grown leaps and bounds over the last decade or so thanks to computer-based publishing, yet the printing quality of the book especially the pictures sections is not eye catching. It is readable though. Of course, content is king and content on our great Chozhas is certainly emperor. I was there for nearly 3.5 hours, but that was not enough. May visit the fair again this weekend.
Thanx for the compliment. I am from Dindigul -- Not madurai. But a frequent visitor to Madurai during my college days (Gandhigram Rural University) and I did my PG from MKU University Campus, Palgalai Nagar.
Venkatesh,
I OBJECT YOUR HONOUR. If not all the 25K people there are people inmy relatives circle who wait for the book fair and are also frequent visitors to book store. Books are a kind of addiction just like any other addiction. My point is connoisseurs are still out there. Yes this IT boom has produced more pseudo connoisseur around. But one thing that makes me happy is that whether be it Tamizh or English the reading habit is still there even in the GeNEXT ... The success of Harry Potter is one good example. Whether they read it out of passion or peer pressure, the kids read and discuss the story and description. That makes me feel happy
Visited the fair last weekend. Got hold of a few books. Bought 'Divakar's Vichitra chittan. Yet to start reading. One of the things I am reading these days is not the history of the kings and dynasties but that of the ordinary people at different times. So was looking for the books and surprisingly found many in Tamil. 1. A.K.Perumals books - All are based on the local deities worshipped in various parts of tamil nadu and the history of how these worship came about. Bought 'Kodungollur Kannagiyin kathai' 'Naattar pen deivangal' and a couple more. 2. Christhuvamum Jathiyamum - This is related to the building and demlition of the wall in the Vadakkankulam church. 3. Muthammal sarithiram - Written by a Malay coolie's wife about the initial days of immigration from Tamilnadu to Malaya in the 18th century. Apart from that bought books by Saavi, autobiographies by Salim Ali and Jim Corbett, few novels and essays on the history of southern tamil nadu. Will try to write on atleast a few of these items in the coming days. Overall, I found the fair a bit of disappointment. May be I went with high expectations.
On the brighter side, here is a useful link http://www.chennailibrary.com/ They have the entire set of Kalki and pudhumaipithan's stories online in Tamil.
I am really missing the book fair this year and all your descriptions makes me more frustrated. Anyway, good to atleast hear about this.
Well said udanx. Reading is an addiction. I do buy most of the books from book fair and some from the stalls as well but I am not that kind of reader like many in these forum. But many of the books I buy, i take years to read :)
You are from Dindigul? Must be knowing KVN sons on the main bazaar road? Its my brother in laws firm, he is one of the partners. My sister lives in Dindigul and I do visit her quite often.
> I came out of the fair with the same question in mind. Also I wonder, > whether the book fair is the only place where the tamil books are > being bought by the public? Just taking me it has been years since I > bought a tamil book at a shop and it is the 3rd year in a row that I > am buying the books from this fair. Has anyone felt the same way?? =============
Hi Sivaram Kannan,
Greetings..
Good thought.
Personally instead of sending Greeting Cards (now that we changed to SMS / Emails) I purchase Books (around Rs. 100 or less) and gift .. It can be 1 or 10.. but that habit helps some one.
I have done this for Dr. Kalikkovan's books.. Dr. Kudavoil / Dr. Nagaswwamy's books ..
I presented " Foundation of Tamil Arts : by Dr. Nagaswamy " to a very POPULAR personality recently..
These are all to create more awareness ..
This year the VAZHIKAATTI published by Chennnai - Canara Bank official Mr. Saikumar, re Thirumuraithalangal - priced at Rs. 50 - with a Foreword by REACH Foundation is being gifted.
RASANAI is a nice Tamil MONTHLY published from Coimbatore. Priced at Rs. 10/-. Covers extensively on articles related to Culture and History. Annual subscription Rs. 60/- ..
If you find some interesting subject where you want to bring to the attention of the Authorities, buy and send them a copy of such book duly flagged. It works.
I am giving BOOKS ONLY as Birthday gifts to my friends and friends of my family members .. !
meaning there is scope to buy books (priced less) throughout the year...
Re Costly books, I think Book Fair is a nice option.
Ofcourse we have Cannimara Library Chennai where we have that 10% discount always.
Hi, Publishers felt that this year the crowd is less in bookfair. One of the reason is that they quoted is, tamil books are available in many shpos these days.
Did anyone buy the book "Yamam" by S.Ramakrishnan. It is a story based on chennai's history. I felt the story is really good.
Hi, Publishers felt that this year the crowd is less in bookfair. One of the reason is that they quoted is, tamil books are available in many shpos these days.
Did anyone buy the book "Yamam" by S.Ramakrishnan. It is a story based on chennai's history. I felt the story is really good.
the crowd was okay but because of too many stalls was dissipated. also the rains and the rather difficult approach to the main stalls were impediments.
true buyers came at 11 and spent time till the evening. our members like v.k and arunachalam would go for a round and buy books and leave it at my stall. then go for another round.sps had brought a man to carry the books he had bought.
my assesment was every publisher had a complaint that the new books given for printing didnt turn up from the presses- mainly because the date of the book fair was advanced by a week ( from last year's 10th jan to 4th jan) the printers had a clash between theese and the regular diaries.
anyway a lot of publishers did do roaring business. venketesh
Since there are too many stalls and visitors have very little time for everything, I think it is the responsibility of the stall keepers to arrange books properly as per author or subject. Most stalls were just dumping the books - making them less visible to interested persons.
In one of the rows, they have dumped name boards on the middle of the walk way and expected visitors to be good athelets and able to be jump and leap.
Some stalls were overcrowded for their size - for example Ananda viketan. I guess they are running these stalls successfully continuously for several years. Can they not book a bigger stall ?
And some suggestions:
1) Promote theme stalls ( for example theological ) 2) A guide to the book exhibition - key stalls and what they have on display - can be published in leading news papers or given away free or as inserts to news papers / neighborhood times. I saw some special column in Dinamalar. But it was not detailed. 3) Move to a better exhibition ground such as the Chennai Trade Center where things can be arranged in a better manner and service could start at 9AM