A week-long book expo, commemorating the National Book Festival, has begun near the Civil Rights Court here. MLA Bonda Uma Maheswara Rao inaugurated the expo on Friday. The objective of the fair is to promote reading habits among youngsters and to reduce the gap between readers and writers, according S. Venkatanarayana, secretary of the Vijayawada Book Festival Society, (VBFS), which is organising the expo.

He said the expo was being organised at Gudivada and Machilipatnam for the first time, and that its objective was to promote reading habits in the semi-rural areas of the district. “This is an effort to take publishers to the doorstep of readers. More and more readers are willing to visit festivals to purchase books, as buying books through postal mode is getting costly. Soon, we will be selecting three mandals in each district to organise such expos,” said B. Babjee, advisory committee member of the society.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Vijayawada / by Special Correspondent / Vijayawada – November 14th, 2014