Big Bad Wolf Colombo 2019 opens doors to public
For the third consecutive year, the much-anticipated Big Bad Wolf Colombo book sale officially opens its doors to the public starting from today to October 28, following the exclusive preview that took place yesterday.
Big Bad Wolf Colombo 2019 brings a wide array of brand-new books with attractive discounts.
Driven by passion, Andrew Yap and Jacqueline Ng first launched the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale in 2009 as a warehouse sale in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, providing an exciting array of excess books from international distributors.
The affordable prices and easy availability of the books proved to be a huge attraction and in no time, the sale turned into a landmark event nationwide. When it was introduced to Colombo back in October 2017, Colombo’s literature lovers flocked to the SLECC with much enthusiasm.
Big Bad Wolf Book Sale 2018 was brought to Sri Lanka by Proread Lanka (Pvt.) Ltd, an organisation focused on bridging the gap between knowledge accessibility and learning opportunities in Sri Lanka.
Speaking at the exclusive preview event yesterday, Proread Lanka (Pvt.) Ltd Director and Big Bad Wolf Books Sri Lanka Partner Nishan Wasalathanthri said that during the past two years, free books were given away for scholarship students who got best results.
“This has been a CSR initiative that we have been doing and last year we gave free books to A/L students who excelled in their results. This year we joined hands with Centre of Hope, a charity organisation that operates a care home and educational centres in several parts of the country by contributing 500 free books and guests have the opportunity to donate books.
Some important elements include Sampath Bank offers on credit and debit cards. As the transport partner Youcab has come on board to give a discount to visitors who come to Big Bad Wolf. There will also be a free shuttle service running from Bambalapitiya up to the SLECC and another one from Borella to the SLECC during weekends. The timing would be from 8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. Visitors will also have access to free Wi-fi courtesy Mobitel (Pvt.) Ltd, who has come on board as the telecom partner.
We had to change the timings due to the security situation we had during the past few days. With the advice from security authorities, we have taken every measure to make sure that everything runs smoothly.”
Described as the world’s biggest book sale, Big Bad Wolf Book Sale Colombo 2019 will display over 1.5 million brand-new English books covering genres such as literature, architecture, science, young adult, romance, memoirs and biographies among many others, sourced from credible publishers from around the world.
Another highlight of this year’s sale is the introduction of the Magical Book titles, which are Augmented Reality (Ar)-inspired books designed for children.
In her comments, Big Bad Wolf Books Founder Jacqueline Ng recalled how it all began.
“We started very small in a 500 square feet book store in 2009 with a simple mission to increase readership and literacy. My husband and I started a company to make a change that we could bring forward by making books affordable so that more people could afford to buy books, especially for children. We got positive feedback from customers from day one and then we decided to think what else we could do to reach out to more people. This was how Big Bad Wolf was born in 2009.
It’s not just another book sale because we are strongly moving forward in our mission. Our mission has been to spread the love of reading and to change the world one book at a time. By creating this platform more people will have access to affordable, quality books and through them people will be inspired and empowered to chase their dreams.
Sri Lanka’s history, culture and natural beauty are undeniably alluring. Adding to that is Sri Lanka’s love for books as proven from day one of Big Bad Wolf back in 2017. Sri Lankans appreciate the power of knowledge and self-education. However, there is a huge amount of people out there who have limited or no access to quality, brand-new English books due to pricing. This is why we decided to bring Big Bad Wolf books to Sri Lanka in 2017.
Currently we are in 33 cities in 10 countries and we hope that we will continue to grow and bring books to other parts of the region as well to inspire more people to join and spread the joy of reading across the globe.”