The eight-day long National Book Exhibition and Educational Festival concluded on Wednesday in Nepalgunj. The festival was themed “Education for Change.”

The festival, according to the organisers, indicated the increase of reading culture among Nepali youths, with more than 80 percent of the visitors being college-level youths.

A majority of the visitors said that they choose to read fiction as opposed to other genres, especially books by up-and-coming authors.

“Because works of fiction are easy to read and enjoyable, I bought about half a dozen books, both modern books and classics,” said Pushkar Sharma, one of the vistiors. “Also the recently-published works help to map the socio-political conditions of the country in readable prose.”

According to representatives of various publication houses, the bestselling books were mostly the works of fiction with a significant rise in the readership of autobiographies. According to them, books such as Seto Dharti, Ghatmandu, Khusi, Palpasa Café, and Sirishko Phool, were among the bestsellers.

The exhibit, which featured about 150 book stalls, concluded with sale of books of over eight million rupees, the organisers estimated.

“The exhibit was organised to attract the youth towards the reading culture and to promote Nepali literature,” said Buddhiprasad Adhikari, co-ordinator of the fest. “To that end, one of the main achievements of the fest is that we got to see an unexpected number of youths attracted to reading and discussing the books,” said co-ordinator Adhikari.