Foreign publishers attract greater attention in Lahore International Book Fair 2013

Pakistan News & Features Services

The 27th edition of the Lahore International Book Fair, held at the Expo Centre in Lahore from February 14 to 18, witnessed greater activity at the stalls of the foreign publishers who remained the centre of attention for the visitors, particularly students.

According to the organizers, Lahore International Book Fair Trust (LIBFT), the total number of visitors crossed the figure of 700,000 this year and there were more than 350 stalls occupied by the foreign and local participants. 

Large number of visitors expressed interest in around 20 pavilions of Indian publishers, including Jaypee Brothers Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Pearson Education Publishers, Wolters Kluwer, NCBA Exports, S K Kataria, Manas Publications, Sunrise Publishers, AITBS Publishers, Asian Education Services, Khel Sahitya Kendra, Cambridge University Press India, Springer India, Vishv Books, Kalyan Publishers, Random Publishers and Sage Publishers. 

The cultural, educational and religious books, besides Urdu translations of Turkish books at the stall of Harmony Publications also attracted a big number of bookworms. 

There were considerable movement also at the stalls of John Waley from the UK, Jones and Bartlett from the US, Elsvier Health Sciences, India, the US and the UK and al Ghurair Publications from Dubai. 

BBC and German broadcaster DW had also put up their stalls to promote their Urdu websites while eminent journalists and authors interacted with people at these stands. 

Some of the stalls set up by the local publishers like Paramount Publishing Enterprise, Liberty Books, Oxford University Press, Readings, Liberty Books, Khalid Book, Dogar Publishers and Afaq Publications also drew substantial number of people. 

Among the subjects, the books on religion, science, history, philosophy, technology and languages were more popular than others.