At the Lahore Literature Festival, rumours of a lack of appreciation for literature were greatly exaggerated: we saw people buying books by the armful.

Yes, talk of Pakistani politics and media dominated some sessions, but more than enough people bought books, talked books and read books to earn LLF a spot in our literary hearts. A mecca for bibliophiles, many attendees headed to the Liberty Books stall at LFF to get their hands on books from their wish lists.

Here, we show you what they're reading!

American playwright and feminist Eve Ensler was a popular choice:

L-R: Aleena Ahmad bought 'I Am An Emotional Creature' by Eve Ensler and 'The Death of Sheherzad' by Intizar Husain. Mashal Peerzada bought 'In The Body Of The World' by Eve Ensler as well as 'The Hired Man' by Aminatta Forna.

And not just amongst the ladies:

Komail Aijazuddin poses with 'The Vagina Monologues' by Eve Ensler.

L-R: Ibrahim holds 'The Black Album' by Hanif Qureshi, Mashal bought 'The Vagina Monologues', Amna decided to read 'In The Body Of The World' by Eve Ensler and Osama also purchased 'The Vagina Monologues' by Eve Ensler.

Another favoured author was Maltese-American cartoonist and journalist, Joe Sacco.

From L-R: Meenal Baghel chose to buy 'Karachi' by Laurent Gayer and 'Journalism' by Joe Sacco. Maliha Noorani bought 'I Am An Emotional Creature' by Eeve Ensler and 'Palestine' by Joe Sacco.

Some were feeling the cricket fever.

Natalia Tariq gets 'The Vagina Monologues' by Eve Ensler, 'Fade Into Red' by Reshma K. Barshikar and also 'The Unquiet Ones' by Osman Samiuddin.

People also picked up books by some of the more popular writers.

From L-R: Jawad Qamar gets Mohsin Hamid's 'Moth Smoke and Aamna Khan gets 'And The Mountains Echoed' by Khaled Hosseini and 'The Cuckoo's Calling' Robert Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling pseudonym.

Perhaps some people took it to heart when F S Aijazuddin said “Anyone who doesn’t know Shobhaa De shouldn’t be sitting here”?

Meher Hasan gets a copy of Shobhaa De's 'Never a Dull De'

In the midst of all things literature and culture, there were a few sessions that explored themes of religion and politics. Following LLF, many spoke about how it was unnecessary to discuss such topics at what was mainly a literary gathering.

From L-R: Maryam Omidi gets 'The China-Pakistan Axis: Asia's New Geopolitics' by Andrew Small and Basharat Peer gets 'The Murder of Aziz Khan' by Zulfikar Ghose, as well as 'The Prisoner' by Omar Shahid Hamid

From L-R: John Zubrzycki smiles with his copy of 'Mecca: The Sacred City' by Ziauddin Sardar and Gemma Stevenson buys 'Taking Issue & Allah's Answer' by Iqbal and 'Snow' by Orhan Pamuk

Photo books were also spotted:

Tapu Javeri presented Shobhaa De with a copy of his book, Tapulicious.

- Photo courtesy: Tapu Javeri's Instagram

Mobeen Ansari was at LLF signing copies of Dharkan.

Like every other cultural shindig, LLF too came under the crossfire for becoming too politicized or elitist. In all of that, the true nature of the festival started to get hazy. At the end of the day, though, people left Alhamra Arts Council with books in their hands and smiles on their faces.

All photographs have been taken by Hira Nabi.