JOIN USBook-lovers in the City would probably agree if one was to call the month of December ‘literature month’.
For anyone with a love for the written word, it is a time to celebrate the joy of writing with the upcoming literary events.
To begin with, there’s Bangalore Literature Festival (BLF) at Jayamahal Palace from December 7 to 9. Over 50 authors like Gulzar, Javed Akhtar, Sir Mark Tully, Prakash Belawadi and international authors like Tarquin Hall are slated to attend.
“Given the amount of literary activity happening in the City of late, I’d call it ‘literature season’ more than just a month. In fact, BLF itself organised a lot of events in November as a run-up to the festival,” shares Vikram Sampath, festival co-founder.
Ask him why one ought to attend the festival, and he has lot of reasons.
“There’s the novelty of being a part of the first literature festival of the City. There will be 75-80 literary minds from across the country, and the attendee has a chance to see them up close, get personal copies of their books signed and interact freely.
The programming also has a lot of variety, to ensure that there’s something for everybody,” he adds.
All in all, he promises a festival where one can spend an entire weekend, immersed in books and inspiring conversations.
Following this is the much awaited 10th anniversary of the Bangalore Book Festival (BBF), a paradise for book lovers, which will be held from December 14 to 23 at Tripura Vasini, Palace Grounds.
To make the edition a special one, the organisers have arranged more than 300 stalls featuring English, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu books, out of which around 100 stalls will be dedicated to Kannada books alone.
This year, BBF will also join hands with a national-level literary meet, Bengaluru Sahityotsava, which will feature with Sahitya Academy awardees, Jnanpith
awardees, awardees of Saraswati Sanman and others. This will take place from December 14 to 16.
“We’re giving stress to the regional languages of South India, and are trying to promote reading habits among the public, especially the younger generation. One of the highlights will be the discussions by some eminent vernacular writers about the state of literature today and what needs to be done,” explains Devaru Bhat, secretary, The Bangalore Booksellers and Publishers Association.
“To call December ‘literature month’ would be inappropriate for us, since we are only offering a 10-day long festival,” he adds.
Regardless of whether the tag applies or not, book-lovers are quite excited about the month ahead.
“I have registered for the BLF and printed out my ticket already! I’m also looking forward to BFF because I’m a compulsive buyer and have heard that there are some really rare books one can find there,” shares Varsha, an avid reader.