The publishing industry of Bangladesh produces about 1500 titles every year and it seems not enough for a population of 140 million. But the circulation is meager by any standard and the readership is not building up as expected when the literacy rate hovers around 50%-60% of the population. To improve this, initiatives like encouraging "reading societies" and building libraries in every educational institutions are mandatory. Moreover the cost of books should be at par with peoples' purchasing power, improving quality of the publications and stopping piracy is a must.
The University Press Limited (UPL) , a leading publishing house of Bangladesh is offering a sale of its books. UPL publishes high quality books in English and Bengali and sells some imported ones too but unfortunately these are expensive in Bangladeshi standard. Me & my wife went rushing to their office in Motijheel after seeing their advertisement in newspaper that they are offering discounts up to 75%. They have amazing collections and we went to home with 17 English and Bengali books including:
* Living Silence (Burma under military rule) - Christina Fink
* Eating Out at Home -Mona Verma
* North and South -Elizabesth Gaskell
* The Life of Muhammad -A. Guillaume
* International Relations and Bangladesh - Harun ur Rashid
I was pretty sad when I had to put this book back to UPL shelf because both of our parses were exhausted.
The sale will go on up to tomorrow. Book lovers don't miss this opportunity.
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