Fiction, non-fiction - Indian authors shine at World Book Fair

Giving tough competition to foreign writers are Indian authors who seemed to have emerged as the rulers at the 44th World Book Fair.

Fiction, non-fiction, classic novels or children's books, the Indian authors and their writing have engrossed visitors at the fair.

In the fiction category, romantic comedies remained a favourite, especially among the school and college going crowd.

"Books by Ravinder Singh and Durjoy Dutta are runaway hits at our stall. People are even buying old books written by these authors," Tanisha Saigal, manager, customer service at the Penguin book stall told IANS.

Naveem Mishra of Westland informed that around 90 per cent of the people who are coming to the stall are looking for Indian authors. Savi Sharma's latest book "Everyone Has A Story" which was released last year was an instant favourite among visitors.

"People coming here are looking for Indian authors. They can connect more with the Indian style of writing. 'Himalaya' by Ruskin Bond and Namita Gokhale is selling well. We also have books by Ruskin Bond which are also in demand," Pushpendra Kumar of Speaking Tiger said.

In the non-fiction category, biographies appeared to be in demand among the readers.

"Karan Johar's 'Unsuitable Boy' and Sadhguru's 'Inner Engineering' are mostly in demand at our stall," Saigal added.

"Biographies on Shatrughan Sinha, Mohammed Rafi and Shashi Kapoor are doing well at our stall. Even Mahatma Gandhi's autobiographical book is seeing demand this time," Sanjay Mago of Om Book Store informed.

Mythological fiction is also gaining popularity among children, said Mago adding that books like "The Chronicles of Hanuman", "The Hunt for Rama's Bow" are selling well at the stall.

Kumar added that Amish Tripathi's "Shiva Trilogy" is still going strong among the kids as well as youngsters.

"Apart from these, there is a huge rise in demand for children's books and it is also good to see that kids, youngsters are coming in large numbers which didn't happen last year," Saigal added.

The World Book Fair at Pragati Maidan will end on Sunday.

--IANS

som/ksk/bg