Book exhibit lacks promotion

From Merdeka

I was overcome with sadness when I saw the poor turn out at the ongoing IKAPI Book Exhibition, held at the east parking lot of Senayan. On the other hand, the Jakarta Auto Expo, which was held at the nearby Jakarta Convention Center, attracted people in droves.

The irony of it is just unbelievable. The government has announced a Month of Reading Enthusiasts for this year but the public only displayed a poor interest in the respective book fair, which should have been worth a visit and should have attracted a large crowd.

The exhibit offered new publications and a giant sale of very reasonably priced books. This was to encourage the public's reading sense. Alas, there were only a sprinkling of visitors attending the book fair.

Greater Jakarta students could have been better informed by promotional efforts, such as announcements through the radio, or sticking up posters and putting ads in newspapers. The book exhibition could also have been held in the same location as the Jakarta Auto Expo, in an another effort to liven up the event.

We feel that this experience should be of immense value to the organizers so that next year's book fair will be a much livelier event for visitors. Meetings with famous artists and writers and dialog between writers and story writers will definitely help attract visitors.

At any rate, the whole exhibit should be spiced up and be made more attractive since we like to visit book exhibits to look for books of our choice.

F. IRIANSYAH

Jakarta