The longest Boi Mela in memory, running for 31 days including a two-day extension, wrapped up on Sunday (March 2), publishing a total of 3751 new books from the book fair and welcoming 60 lakh (6 million) visitors in total.
The concluding ceremony was held at the main stage of the Book Fair at the premises of the Bangla Academy where Bangla Academy director general Mohammad Nurul Huda delivered the welcome speech and expressed satisfaction while prime minister’s adviser for education and cultural affairs Dr Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury attended the closing ceremony as the chief guest.
Dr. Sahed Mantaj, deputy director of administration sub-division of Bangla Academy disclosed the figure of this year’s sales and the overall information of this year’s fair in the closing ceremony.
The book fair's organizer, Bangla Academy, reports that sales at this year's event exceeded Tk 60 crore, compared to 47 crores the year before and 52 crores in 2022. This indicates that the publishers were somewhat relieved by the lack of buyers throughout the Covid and pre-Covid periods of this year.
In the fair, out of the total 3,751 books, there were 1262 poetry books, 106 rhymes books, 76 researches, 69 Liberation war related books, 64 history books, 71 children’s novels, 64 travel books, 61 translations, 44 science books, 36 science fictions, 29 compositions, 33 books of religious category, 31 of comics category, 34 of dramas, 27 about Bangabandhu, 29 books on politics, 29 books on health, and 19 dictionaries related books were released in this fair so far along with 222 books on other categories.
However, Bangla Academy itself sold books worth Tk 1.36 crore in the 30 days which was Tk 1.33 crore in 2023 and Tk 1.35 crore in 2022.
In the concluding ceremony of the fair, Bangla Academy distributed awards in four categories to eight publishing houses where Kothaprokash was with Chittaranjan Saha Smriti Puraskar-2024 for publishing a maximum number of quality books in terms of subject and quality.
Besides, Prothoma Prokasona, JourneymanBooks and Oitijjho Publication were given Munir Chowdhury Smriti Purasker for publishing best books in terms of art and quality.
Moyurpankhi Publication was awarded with Rokonuzzaman Khan Dadabhai Smriti Purasker for publishing the highest number of quality books for kids while Annyaprokash Prokasani, Nymphea Publication and Bengal Books Prokasani received Qayyum Chowdhury Smriti Award for best interior designs which were aesthetically rich among the participating publishing houses.