By Anan Rafique
ISLAMABAD: The Department of Libraries, in collaboration with Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) -A, has planned to arrange ‘Capital Book Fair’ from January 5 to 7 in Islamabad capital Territory.
The book fair being arranged at Arts Craft Village, Shakarparian, will offer a variety of books on discounted prices.
The objectives behind arranging this book fair is to revive the book reading habit among general public especially youth, preserve our literary cultural heritage and bring back the culture of book in the society.
Book lovers, especially students and researchers, belonging to the twin cities Rawalpindi and Islamabad are much excited about the book fair to quench their thrust for knowledge.
Professor Tahir, while talking to media, said “This book fair is the much-needed activity to instill book reading culture among the youth, who are now more focused on the electronic gadgets instead of books.”
He appreciated the step taken by the Department of Libraries for promoting book culture in the society and urged the educational and literary departments to keep arranging such activities on regular basis to attract the youngsters towards books and strengthen their bond with book.
Nazish Abbasi, a school teacher and research scholar while sharing her views, said that unfortunately the culture of reading books was almost becoming non-existent “in our society due to many reasons, including high prices of books and easy access to books on internet.”
She said that advancements in the field of technology and price reduction of internet packages had increased “our screen time and we almost forget the feel of book which is not a healthy trend for the society.”
“The use of technology is not bad but youth had almost given up book reading which is unhealthy trend, and the activities like this book fair is an important step towards revival of book culture in the society”, she added.
Shazia Sadiq, a book lover, said that the declining trend of book-reading among the young generation and the excessive use of internet was a matter of concern for the whole society.
She lauded the efforts of the libraries department for promotion of book culture, and urged the parents and educational institutions to bring their children in this book fair and inculcate book reading habit in them.
