35th Chennai Book Fair

I went to the Chennai Book Fair after several years and it turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. The venue is shifted to St.George School opposite Pachiappa's College on Poonamallee High Road. When I enquired they said five years back they shifted to this location as they had space constraints in the previous location.

There were more than 500 stalls and I was told that around 350 stalls were selling books in Tamil. There was ample space in the school grounds for Car Park and the stalls were very neatly laid out. They also have a separate space allocated for lectures and other programmes with comfortable seating for around 300 people. The school grounds are really vast and the bookfair is well laid out with all facilities. Hats off to the organisers for this wonderful arrangement.

There were common credit card payment counters to cater to small stalls which did not have credit card payment facility. It was very fascinating and stunning to see so many book stalls catering to the entire cross section of the society. With the advent of Internet I was thinking that the reading habit would have come down considerably (this is based on my own personal experience) and I was proved wrong in the 35th Chennai Book Fair. Most of the stalls were having very brisk business and they were all offering special discount to customers.

I went with my sons and was very happy to have gone there as it proved to be a wonderful experience for all the three of us. Ashwath picked up a few books on Automobile. Akshay picked up a book for GMAT and I bought some books in Kannadasan Pathippagam and Giri Trading.