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Tuesday, March 1, 2016, Falgun 18, 1422 BS, Jamadiul Awwal 20, 1437 Hijri


Amar Ekushey Book Fair Ends
Over Tk 41cr books sold
Abdul Karim
Published :Tuesday, 1 March, 2016,  Time : 12:00 AM  View Count : 24
The 32nd edition of the month long Amar Ekushey Grantha Mela -2016, the largest literary event of the country, was ended on Monday.
Thousands of booklovers thronged the Bangla Academy and Suhrawardy Udyan premises on the closing day to seize the last opportunity to collect books of their choices.
Publishers and readers expressed satisfaction over the peaceful completion of the fair this year and hoped to join again next year.
Alamgir Hossain, publisher of Aboshor publications, said that the sales of books this year is comparatively good than the last couple of years.
Bangla Academy authority arranged a closing ceremony in the evening at the main stage of the fair where Jalal Ahmed, member secretary of the fair organising committee, presented the final report of the fair.
He said a total of 3444 new titles hit the fair this year with volumes of poetry with 939 books leading the tally. Also volumes of novels with 529 books remained in the second position followed by 197 books on essays, 162 on children literature, 112 books on rhythms, 101 books on Liberation War, 81 books on biography, 48 books on history 45 books on research and 421 books on others.
Last year, 3700, new books hit the fair while the figure was 2,959 in 20-14, 3,070 in 2013, a total of 3,669 in 2012, a total of 3,013 books in 2011 and 3,354 in 2010.
He also said the total combined sales of the participants touched about Tk 40.50 crore this year till 28 February, 21.95 crore last year which was Tk 16.50 crore in 2014, 10.15 crore in 2013 and Tk 26 crore in 2012.
Bangla Academy also sold books worth 1.50 crore this year. Last year, the academy's turnover was Tk 1.60 crore , 1.10 crore in 2014, Tk 67.40 lakh in 2013 and Tk 82.53 lakh in 2012, Tk 72.83 lakh in 2011, Tk 68.01 lakh in 2010 and Tk 61.60 lakh in 2009.
On the concluding day, 140 titles arrived at the fair.
This year, a total of 651 stalls had been given to 402 organizations. Among these, 111 stalls of 82 organisations were allocated at the academy premises while 540 stalls of 320 organisations were allocated at the Shurawardy Udayan. Bangla Academy was featured 15 stalls this year.
On the concluding ceremony, researcher Frace Bhattacharya and writer Monju Islam were awarded of Syed Waliullah award 2015, for outstanding contribution in Bangla and foreign language and literature.
This year, Maola Brothers, Bengal publications and Pathsuttro, Mayurpongkhi and Somoy, Journy Man and Modhuma bagged the Chittaranjan Saha, Shaheed Munier Chowdhury, Rokonuzzaman Khan Dadabhai, artist Qayyum Chowdhury memorial award 2016 for publishing the highest number of quality books, best publications on children literature and well decorated stalls respectively.








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