Monday, January 09, 2006

Chennai Book Fair - 1

Made the first trip to Chennai Book Fair. The crowd was good, but not yet suffocating as it is during the last day. One thing I noted was the Godmen Book stalls (Nithyananda, Jaggi Vasudev, et al) seem to have vanised this year. Good development.

Could see the decline of old publishers (Meyyappan, Manivasagam, Palaniappa, Manimegalai to name a few) and the rise of new ones (Kizhakku, Tamizhini, Uyirmmai). The noticeable difference between the two is the quality of books. The publishing quality of Kizhakku, Uyirmmai publishers are of truly global standards. They also spoil the reader, who expects the same from other publishers :-).

Kizhakku Pathipagam is a natural hub for Tamil Bloggers. Saw Paa. Raghavan, Meenaks, Dondhu Raghavan along with Badri. Could also overhear conversations like "I found who is the anonymous spamming my comment box".

The books I bought were - Moonru Viral (novel by Era. Murukan), Thanneer, Karaindha Nizhalgal (novels by Asoka Mithran) and Collection of Short Stories by Nanjil Nadan.

11 comments:

Chakra said...

I was there last yr and met Paa Raa with Badri. Even that time, we were talking abt blogs, some posts, comments etc. :)

Surya said...

"..Good to note that"
???

Anonymous said...

and you didnt get aathavan's shortstory collection. sure it should be worth the price.

Chenthil said...

Chakra, whenever two bloggers meet what else do they talk :-)

Surya, sorry. corrected

Lazy, this year I decided to spend more time in the exhibition so spread out my buying. I bought Aathavan's short stories today :-)

tris said...

Really if I meet any of you I will not talk blogs :-).

Hey Surya did you get the Dakshin mail I sent you? You were menioned in the article.

Surya said...

tilo ...let me check it right away...

ஜெ. ராம்கி said...

Chennai Book Fair missing an important pair this year! Yes... of course....Guru - Chenthil!

Chenthil said...

Ramki, I have visited the fair twice already this year. Have bought 4 books from Kizhakku and have seen the leading Tamil Bloggers. It is just that none of them know me and hence I am an anonymous visitor :-).

Anonymous said...

chenthil, i think you should be bridging the gap between tamil and english chennai bloggers.

ramki introduced me to a lot of tamil bloggrs last year. from era murukan to pa ra to badri himself, i am sure many of them would be happy to meet you. especially era murukan is extremely pleasant to meet.

Anonymous said...

Hi,
Chenthil whats your opinion about Nanjil nadan kathaigal,I was really impressed ad read that big book with in a week.
That made me the experinces of Nanjil and Mumbai locality.
Ram
muth.ram@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

Nanjil Nadan Short story collection is too good.

I got a chance to read this, could feel the Nanjil "Man Vasanai" :)