The annual Bangalore Book Festival is back and it promises to be bigger and better with a spread of about a million books on display.

The 10-day festival — on from November 18 to 27 at Gayatri Vihar on Palace Grounds — will have 398 stalls with books in English, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi and Urdu, spread over a trade area of more than 2.5 lakh sq. ft. Subjects covered will range from pulp fiction to rarely available Indian editions of foreign academic publications.

E-books too

A special feature this year is the large presence of e-books, said Balram Sadhwani, President, Bangalore Booksellers and Publishers Association (BBPA), speaking to presspersons here on Wednesday. One of the subjects to be covered in the parallel seminars to be held at the exhibition venue is the increasing popularity of e-books.

BBPA secretary Devaru Bhat said the success of the annual fair since 2003 shows that reading habit was only growing healthier in Bangalore. A turnover of over Rs. 17 crore is expected this year, he says. “We are expecting a very good response in terms of orders from schools, universities and libraries.”

He said that the event, which would have 250 publishers and distributors participating, could provide a meeting ground for authors and publishers. A directory of all participating publishers would also be brought out.

Season ticket

As a special feature this year, in collaboration with the Lions Club, the BBPA has introduced Rs. 100 season tickets that allow a person multiple entries on all the 10 days. The exhibition will be open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on all the days, with cultural programmes in the evenings at a venue named after the late writer R.K. Narayan. Tickets are priced at Rs. 20, with free entry for students with valid ID cards.