Comments on: The Book Fair

By: IUnknown

IUnknown — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 08:06:14 +0000

i went there yesterday and i found nothign goood than vanguard . Books were costly but still an hour of searching made me worth going to the bookfair.

Hall #1 must have been a good place if i have visite there on first two days,. There were books stall of US companies. They must have good boookss on history and as well as technology.

The boook fair was good. Better than previous one but prices nneeds to be lowered.

By: Ameer Hamza

Ameer Hamza — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 15:23:26 +0000

Asalam u Alikum,

Last year they had too many good books with huge price tags. Some books were reportedly expensive than what they are on ‘normal days’. One of those books was caught red-handed by my friend who fired at the sheepish-looking salesman. It was either Paramount or Liberty, both off course business people having no love for people or the books. That incident was duly reported by yours truly in Daily Dawn letter’s section.

After reading this post I am quite glad that I didn’t make it to the Expo. Much thanks to the horrible rush we have there every single day during evenings.

I hope Govt. which is presently either digging or building roads consider book-reading an important adventure and start investing in it. This could be done by simply selling books at throw-away rates. This may also be done by forcing publishers to sell their books on heavy discounts.

May Allah help is all. And may Allah bring down the prices of the good books.

Regards,
Ameer Hamza

By: Kiran

Kiran — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 11:33:09 +0000

I went to the book fair on Monday and i was very disappointed .. No doubt the variety of books was there but they were way too expensive ..
I LOVE reading books so the problem of spending lots of money on them is never an issue .. But even then i’d like to be able to buy more books rather than spend all my money on just one book ..
It’s understandable that hard bound books cost a certain amount of money but then these book fairs should also cater to the bookaholics who buy for the pleasure of reading rather than the pleasure of the book’s cover ..
Sad to say but i didn’t buy a single book i liked over there .. Just bought 2 notebooks and the latest Synergyzer issue .. They did some nice branding over there ..

By: faylasuf

faylasuf — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 07:18:59 +0000

i wz there on friday, i.e. first day of the exhibition and even though the turn around of audience or prospective book readers was not very healthy it was good to see a healthy book fair in terms of the product on offer and suppliers comin up to offer, at the same time it was frustrating to observe the lack of discipline, should i refer to it as lack of professionalism? Liberty was the single interesting and organized place to skim thru the books

i would agree that the discounts vr not very motivating but then would disagree that the books are being priced too high. obviously the books are expensive if you don’t want to part with yr cash!

i hope no one wud start with the debate on earning power and lack of proper facilities for the underprivileged.

By: tee

tee — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 19:13:33 +0000

i went there today… been going there since the first fair was held three years back. its wonderful to see so many books at one place and the environment is generally great. What i love about shopping at these places is the fact that you get to meet so many other book lovers and then the way everyone is so keen to recommend books and talk about other books by your favorite authors.

but the sad thing is the pricing. its not about whether we spend more on dinners, it just that a book lover would want to buy as many books as s/he can. and one would expect book fairs of such scale to offer discounts of more than a measly 15% which is nothing. i had been looking for a particular title of a fiction book for quite some time. when i finally found it at liberty it was ridiculously priced at Rs 795!

Secondly, i wish they would make the exhibition much more of a colorful affair next time to attract more people. its all so dull and drab. readings from books, local authors etc would be great.

By: IUnknown

IUnknown — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 10:33:27 +0000

hows the book fair except costly books?

By: Kashif

Kashif — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 22:02:15 +0000

I went there last year and bought around 2500 worth of books. Had no idea so many good books will be there for such discounted prices else would have taken more cash with me. Lots of good indian books where there (I bought some related to Tech and Investment). Then there were good islamic books with up to 80% discount. Incidently, Oxford books were more expensive than indian books of same category.

By: fAr stAr

fAr stAr — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 20:47:09 +0000

i visited the exhibition on the first day. found some great books, but the price tags of them were a bit higher then what i can afford. but for someone who loves reading, and also buy those expensive books, it is an opulent exhibition.

By: Ramla A.

Ramla A. — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 18:18:21 +0000

Addition to above – I photographed the said book in the first fair.

Anyhow what with Harry Potter book 7′s price sliding down from 1600 to 900 in only about a month – we can have an idea of the sellers’ profit margin. Hopefully someone will get better sense – and encourage people to get hold of decent original versions at great prices.

By: Ramla A.

Ramla A. — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 18:08:59 +0000

Fairs of this kind usually offer great lower prices to the customers. But beware! I had photographed a book, the price tag of which was carelessly overlapped with a higher price sticker! An addition of some 70 bucks if I remember correctly.

The Indian stalls did a roaring business in the first fair, and the second time around – most stalls had sold out.

The book sellers should consider offering crazy discounts to encourage crazy loyal book readers.