The 15th National Book Fair Lucknow is back at Moti Mahal Lawns. On from September 8 to September 17, 2017, the Book Fait has almost no big publishing names. But don’t let that deter you from having a good time. Here’s what to look out for at the Book Fair:
1. USED BOOKS
The Book Fair is a delight for book lovers looking to buy books for cheap. Classics, pulp fiction, Mills & Boons, children’s books, it’s all there among the dozens of book stalls selling second-hand books. What’s rare are used books by Indian authors, but you will find those too at this Book Fair. The good thing about these second hand stalls is that they source their collections from libraries, which are going bust at a fast pace. So, you could stumble upon a rare find like we did – three books from Sunil Dutt’s personal library with his name in his handwriting and even an antique 1920’s Hymn book for use in Churches!
NL Tip: While there’s nothing like sifting through piles of books to discover a treasure, there’s one book stall that has a really vast collection of books in really good condition – the Student Book Center, Stall No. 57.
2. GO ON A BLIND DATE WITH BOOKS!
Go to Book Chor or at Stall No. 5 for an eclectic variety of non discounted books and book sets. And you can go on a blind date with a book! The Blind Date with a book is a concept in which they have placed a shelf with books wrapped in brown paper. The wrapping paper is marked with the genre of the books inside, but the books’ names are not revealed. At a fixed price you could get a blind date with non-fiction political biography, chick-lit, romance, mother-daughter relationship and more genres.
3. STATIONERY SHOPS
For craft supplies and stationery items including pens, colours, assortment of diaries, papers, etc, there’s plenty to shop at the Student Book Center (Stall No. 72), and the Kores Stall inside the pandal.
4. CHILDREN’S BOOKS
Almost all the stalls have something for kids, but if you’re looking for worksheets to help with school studies, visit Scholars Hub, right opposite the Kores stall inside the pandal. They also have a good collection of books for beginner readers. Another stall that has an interesting collection of story books for children is Lucknow-based Subhash Pustak Bhandar.
5. OXFORD
Among the big publishing houses, there’s only Oxford to reckon with. Expect the expected – good quality publishing on a variety of subjects.
Written for Now Lucknow
by Nitin Prakash
Nitin, a businessman and self-professed foodie and bibliophile, is first and foremost a Lakhnawi at heart. The magic words to get anything done by him are a). food b). books and c). Lucknow
