KARACHI: The annual month-long Oxford Book Fair, organized by Oxford University Press (OUP), has commenced and will continue till 30 November at the Oxford Bookshops in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan, Rahimyar Khan, Sargodha, Sahiwal, Peshawar, Abbottabad, Quetta, Hyderabad, and Sukkur.
The much-awaited yearly event offers huge discounts on an extensive range of books, for both children and adults, covering diverse subjects.
Every year, the fair draws a large number of visitors including book-lovers, children, booksellers, librarians, and students and teachers from schools, colleges, and universities.
The selection of books featured at the book fair includes both locally published and imported children’s fiction and non-fiction books, English Language Teaching materials, atlases, encyclopedias, and school and higher education textbooks. Well-researched publications on international affairs, politics, history, anthropology, women’s studies, art, literature, as well as biographies and memoirs of prominent Pakistani personalities will also be showcased at the fair.
A wide range of OUP’s hallmark English and bi-lingual dictionaries and thesauruses, which are a perennial favourite with customers, will be available at special, reduced prices.
Books that will be of particular interest to people visiting the fair this year include: Noak Jhoak by Shanul Haq Haqqee; The Begum: A Portrait of Ra’ana Liaquat Ali Khan, Pakistan’s Pioneering First Lady; Defiance of the Rose: Selected Poems by Perveen Shakir; Pakistan’s Radioactive Decade: An Informal Cultural History of the 1970s; and Intikhab-e-Kalam: Iftikhar Arif.
Children will enjoy browsing through exciting new readers like A Children’s History of Balochistan which introduces children to the rich history and culture of Pakistan’s largest province; Monsters not Allowed, a story about Maxi the monster who loves to read children’s books; Graphic Stories: Perween Rahman which gives an account of the remarkable life of the Pakistani social activist and director of the Orangi Pilot Project; and Helpful Friends, a heart-warming story about friendship.