With 1,000-plus stalls, 2024 Kolkata Book Fair to be biggest ever 

The Kolkata Book Fair of 2024 — to be held from January 18 to 31 — is going to be the largest ever

The Kolkata Book Fair of 2024 — to be held from January 18 to 31 — is going to be the largest ever, with the total number of stalls crossing the 1,000 mark, according to the organisers, who said that this edition will also see honouring of senior citizens. 

“This time due to tremendous pressure from participants, the number of stalls has been increased. In the 2023 fair we had around 950 participants, for 2024 the number has exceeded 1,025. There will be many new participants with smaller booths,” said Tridib Chatterjee of Publishers & Booksellers Guild, the organisers. 

“Among foreign participants, Germany will be participating after 12 years, while the United Kingdom will be the theme country. There is also a new addition this edition: on January 24 we will celebrate senior citizens’ day, when a senior author, publisher, and a reader will be felicitated. We are still in the process of finalising who all will be honoured,” Mr. Chatterjee said. 

The Kolkata Book Fair — in its 47th year next month — is easily the city’s most popular event after Durga Puja, attracting 25-30 lakh visitors and recording, last edition, a sale of ₹25 crore. Venues have been challenged and changed over the years, and the iconic event now takes place in Salt Lake grounds. Online sale of books has not dented the popularity of the fair — in fact, far from it — as it provides a window to small publishers who have a dedicated readership but who are not much visible otherwise. 

“On Amazon you only get to see the blurb of a book, but at the book fair you get to hold a book and look inside — I think that’s the biggest reason for its popularity. Also for Bengali readers, the fair offers you books that aren’t usually available in College Street, even Sahitya Akademi books for that matter. What’s more, you get to interact with publishers,” Saubhik Mukhopadhyay, who works with a multinational, said.

Amartya Bandopadhyay, a chemistry teacher in a Diamond Harbour school who claimed he took up the job in a school instead of a college (in spite of getting an offer) so that he could spend more time reading, said that he visits the fair mainly to look for newly-published Bengali books. “This time I particularly plan to look at the stalls of Jadavpur University and publications like Anustup and Ababhash,” Mr. Bandopadhyay said. 

Chiranjit Das of Aranyamon publishers said that small firms like his relied mainly on the book fair and that for the upcoming edition, they will be showcasing 24 new books. “Many of them are thrillers and horror stories. There is also a 350-plus fantasy novel and a book on the Mumbai underworld,” he said.