Codissia Book Fair ends, sees 1.5 Lakh visitors
The Coimbatore Book Festival 2023, organised by the Coimbatore District Small Scale Industries Association (Codissia) in association with the Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India (Bapasi) on Codissia premises, concluded on Sunday.
Over 1.5 lakh people visited the seventh edition of the fair in 10 days, said Ramesh Krishnan, chairman of the event. “As many as 333 stalls were set up, compared to 280 last year. One lakh titles were available. English and Tamil novels, short stories and novels of both regional and foreign authors, were available. Separate stalls for medicine, health, and spirituality and for children were made available. More than 200 publication houses participated in the fair,” he told.
While most of the visitors were happy with the collection, some of them urged the organizers to bring classic novels that can otherwise be found on online shopping platforms and at used bookstores.
“I bought business-related books and some children’s books for my son. The overall arrangement was satisfying,” said E Senthilraja, a first-timer to the festival.
A bookseller said this year’s response was not as good as he expected. But a Coimbatore-based bookseller said he had good business. “I mostly have children’s books. Hordes of students turned up to buy them,” he added.
The Tamil Nadu prison department had set up a stall for visitors to donate books for prisoners. “We received over 3,500 books, which will be distributed among 1,500 inmates,” said K Sakthivel, senior teacher, Coimbatore Central Prison.
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