Date:03/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/03/stories/2008120358540200.htm

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

A sea of books to wade through

D. Karthikeyan

— Photo: S. James

ALL UNDER ONE ROOF: Visitors eagerly browsing through books at the fair in Madurai.

MADURAI: Books galore at the third annual Madurai Book Fair. If you have a particular genre in mind, you get it here. Fifty lakh books with wide ranging titles of one lakh occupy the 200 stalls on Tamukkam Ground here.

Different genres such as fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, poetry, biography and folklore are available and many stalls have works of Tamil literature, Western literature, Dalit literature, Dravidian literature, personality development, children’s literature, Marxist literature, Hindu religious literature and Islamic literature.

There are stalls that have works exclusively of and on social reformer E. V. R. Periyar and political stalwarts of Tamil Nadu, C. N. Annadurai and M. Karunanidhi. Works of well-known Tamil writers such as Ki. Rajanarayanan, Jeyakanthan, Sundara Ramaswamy, Ku. Azhagirisamy, Thi. Janakiraman, Indira Parthasarathy, Nakulan, Pramil, K. Daniel and G. Nagarajan can be found in many stalls.

Translations

A few stalls have interesting translations of Marxist thinkers, Karl Marx, Mao Zedong, Frantz Fanon, Walter Benjamin, Che Guevara, and Fidel Castro apart from literature on African and Black Nationalism like that of Patrice Lumumba, Malcolm X and W. E. B. Dubois.

LeftWord books and Marxist literature are available in Bharathi Puthagalayam and New Century Book House. Famous children’s book publishers such as Scholastic, Prodigy, and Spider Books are also there.

Sahitya Akademi, National Book Trust, Gandhian Literature Society, Higginbothams and S. Chand Company cater to the needs of college students.

Dictionaries on various academic disciplines, apart from English, are on display. Orient Blackswan Publishers have books on urban studies, alternative histories, subaltern studies, history, philosophy and popular culture.

A wide range of religious and spiritual titles can be found at stalls put up by Krishnamurti Foundation, Nityananda Dhyana Peedam, Sri Ramakrishna Mutt and Islamic Foundation Trust. Service examination guides for Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission, Civil Services, Bank Services and Staff Selection Commission are also available.

A 10 per cent discount is offered on all titles and the fair will be open till December 7.