Coimbatore: With 265 stalls, the fourth edition of Coimbatore Book Festival is set to provide bookworms in the city a reason to celebrate. The festival will be inaugurated at 6pm on July 20 and will be held till July 29. The fest is organized jointly by the Coimbatore District Small Industries Association (Codissia) and Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India (Bapasi).Apart from publishers from the state, publishers from Kerala, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Puducherry and New Delhi will also set up stalls at the fair, said S Soundararajan, chairperson of the festival. A total of 175 publishers will set up stalls at the venue.“Last year, the festival saw around 60,000 visitors and sales to the tune of Rs 2.5 crore,” Soundararajan said. Organizers said they expected the footfall to increase this year.The festival, on its sidelines, will also have events such as literary discussions, plays, book releases and competitions for students and workers. As part of the festival, noted Tamil writer S Ramakrishnan will be honoured with the lifetime achievement award on Friday. A session to discuss Ramakrishnan’s work will be held at the festival venue on Sunday, organizers said. While in 2016 Tamil writer Balakumaran was honoured with award, last year the award was given to Tamil writer Jeyamohan.Initiatives such as ‘Arivukeni’ which aims at inculcating reading habits among school and college students and an initiative to start libraries in industries will be taken up. Through the latter initiative, libraries were set up in around 53 industries last year, they said.On July 24, students from PSG College of Arts and Science will perform the play ‘Narkali’ based on a short story of the same title written by Tamil writer Ki Rajanarayanan. The festival would be open on all 10 days from 11am to 8pm. Pick-up facility for public has been arranged from Avninashi Road till Codissia, a statement from the organization said. There is no entry fee for the festival.

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