The World Book Fair was expected to draw at least 100,000 visitors per day, but the numbers barely crossed the 1,000-mark, insiders say. So whatever happened to the love of reading?
Billed as the largest book bazaar in the Afro-Asian region, the fair did not live up to the hype. A curious sense of desolation hung over the 46,200-sq.metre area throughout the week after sundown.
Business was slow because the “meltdown has apparently tightened purse strings”, a publisher lamented. On Friday evening, more visitors flocked to the food stalls than to the 2,172 vends hosting 1,343 publishers from 17 countries.
“Where have the readers gone?” an old-timer at the fair asked.
