Bangalore hosts the book fest 2008. Palace grounds is the venue.
I love to read books, books of most genres, be it fiction or non-fiction, romance, biography personal development, historical etc. I avoid comics;even the worldwide best sellers like Harry Potter or Lord of Rings.
Almost 230 stalls put up in the event. Thousands may be lakhs of books on display for sale. Few stalls with the authors promoting their books with autographs. But I remember only one book The Shine, forgot the author name even. A very interesting promotional banner on display. The author of this book is right infront of u to take the criticism. Dare to tell him what a bullshit crap have u written, if u dont like the book. Of course I cant miss out the sales girl sporting a air-hostess costume in the stall.
Water water everywhere water, not a single drop to drink. Take it in positive. Books books every where books, cant decide what to buy.
Excluding comics, kids, spiritual sections, roughly about 170 stalls contained the fiction. Of these, around 40 stalls contained books by two authors. Jeffrey Archer and Sydney Sheldon. Followed by Kalam's Wings of Fire, Robert Ludlum, Chetan Bhagat and the new entrant, Aravind of The White Tiger Fame.
Yaak yaak, some technical stalls also were there. Watching all the Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, IBM etc stuff and the crowd inside these stalls over there reminded me of Vodafone tagline, Wherever you go our network follows.
I had heard a lot about P.Lankesh, Ananthamurthy and Ravi Belagare in Kannada literature. I had a thought inside, if I can read atleast ten lines with 70% accuracyand ease, I would buy a book from one or three of them. I lost, better luck next time.
Over 3 and a half hours inside the fest, walking all over the stalls n checkin the titles, so stressing n aching. Not much weight in purse to buy books, except for a title(secret :P) of Shobha De and Lajja by Tasleema Nasreen.
Over all: a must go for all book lovers.
