More Than 1.5 Crore Books At Budget Prices: Book Lovers, Head To The Chennai Book Fest

The Chennai Book Festival is on at Nandanam YMCA Grounds until January 20 and you can visit the fair from 2pm to 9pm on weekdays and from 11am to 9pm on weekends. 

With more than 800 stalls, this book fair is a haven for book lovers. You’ll find books in both Tamil and English and multimedia content for children. While there are books in different genres, this is the best place to hoard up on non-fiction. 

The entry fee is a mere INR 10 and you can go as many times as you want. The books are usually on 10 or 15 percent discount. Books are priced from INR 90. If you’ve got them haggling skills, it’s an extra bonus! Yes, there’s Amazon but if you love reading the synopsis, touching the pages, and flipping through the book, this fair is the place for you. We found popular sellers like Penguin, Higginbothams, Harper Collins, etc. You will find the best-selling novels here and if you scourge just a bit you can discover some hidden gems. 

There’s also a platform for readers to interact with authors. Recently, writer Lena Tamilvanan interacted with readers and fans and we hear there was a session with Director Pa Ranjith as well. This is a great chance to support indigenous book sellers who otherwise wouldn’t sell as many books and may even be forced to abandon their book stores. While the book sellers may not know the name of every author or book, if you show them the picture of the cover, they will identify it for you.