Curtains come down on ‘a truly international fair’
sharjah — As the 36th edition of the Sharjah International Book Fair came to an end on Saturday, book lovers, young and old, made a beeline to the fair to take advantage of discounted prices on limited edition titles. The most-sought after literary event in Sharjah saw several thousand shoppers taking advantage of books priced at less that Dh10.
For publishers, this edition was exceptionally good as the spending power of people was much better as compared to previous years, and children’s books were extremely popular at the fair.
A regular attendee of SIBF, Indu Varanasi, an Indian, said: “The Sharjah Book Fair is a great platform in terms of content, and the sessions at the fair are great as well. However, it’d be great if they start streaming the sessions online because for residents living in Dubai, driving all the way to Sharjah every day is a bit of a hassle.”
Earl Cornista, an employee of Magrudy’s Books, said: “This has been a great year at the fair, especially since we get to meet other publishers. It’s a truly international fair. People have been buying all kinds of books and titles, however, fiction books were the most popular this year.” Magrudy’s was selling well-known fiction titles for less than Dh50. “Children’s books remained the most popular item of sale,” he said.
Idris Mears, Alserkal Cultural Foundation said: “The fair was great this year. I think the buying capacity of people is really goof, and the stall location really helped us exhibit books in a great way. We were giving books at a 30 to 35 per cent discount, and all kinds of titles were popular among book lovers,” he said. The most popular days were Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Edu.Fun, a company that sells educational books and furniture said that this has been a truly great year in terms of footfall. “We’ve offered great discounts and made relations. People seem to be genuinely interested in buying, and to be honest, this has been one of the better book fairs so far,” said Sufiyan Sheikh, employee of Edu.Fun.
Meanwhile, Simon Thomas, the managing director of Innovation Books said: “This was one of the busiest years at SIBF. People are well-aware of different titles and our biggest customers were definitely young children.”
dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com