Book exhibit lacks promotion

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