MINGORA: A large number of students and book lovers thronged the first day of the two-day annual book fair organised by the Jahanzeb College Swat in collaboration with the National Book Foundation here on Wednesday.

The book fair offered a variety of books on discounted prices. “We found many books on discounted rates related to our course in the book fair, which are not available in book stores in Mingora,” said Abdul Latif Albaz, a student of BS English.

He said that it was time youth must realise the importance of book reading to gain knowledge.

There were also girls students in large numbers, who expressed happiness over the holding of the fair, saying that they could not go to market to buy books of their choice.

“I am much excited to see large number of books of almost all disciplines at display in the fair at affordable rates. I have bought several books which I needed for long time but I could not buy them as I was not allowed to go to bookstores,” said Mahnoor Zafar, another student of BS English.

She said these were valuable books having treasure of knowledge, adding instead of wasting time on social media students should read books.

“This book fair has double advantage for us as we find all those books which are not available in the market and our teachers are here to guide us to buy books which are related to our courses,” said student Naheed Siraj.

The students said that such book fairs should be organised regularly to help them find books of their choice.

Prof Attaur Rehman Atta, who is one of the organisers of the book fair, said that it was the second book fair organised in the college with the aim to provide those books to students which could not be found in the market.

Through these book fairs we want to promote reading culture among students and youth, he said, adding that his team would organise such book fairs in future as well.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2018