Bibliophiles of the national capital utilised the sunny Sunday afternoon to head for the ongoing World Book Fair in large numbers.

With the weather remaining pleasant, the bookworms started coming to the fair late afternoon on the second day. Many of the publishers this time had decorated there stalls keeping a match with the theme of this year’s book fair – “environment and climate change”.

Like last year, this year too, it was again the children who kept the book fair lively with their enthusiasm and keen interest in books. Although Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Enid Blyton and Ruskin Bond remained prefered pick for children, there appeared an increase in demand of comic series and fable tables.

Six-year-old Nael Khan who was already holding a copy of colouring book was hopping from one stall to another searching for Vikram Betal series. This was his first visit to book fair and his excitement seemed no boundaries.

“I am very happy to be here. There are so many colourful stalls and so many books. I want to buy as many books possible. I love reading fable tales, they are very interesting. I also want to buy books on Akbar-Birbal stories,” Nael told IANS.

The charm of children’s books even made youngsters get a copy of their all time favourite characters. Utkarsha Dixit who came all the way from Gurgaon was seen buying Chacha Chaudhary books.

“It is like reliving those childhood days. I remember attending book fairs when I was in school and college and buying comic books and parents wouldn’t even stop me. I couldn’t visit last year so had already planned to visit this time. I will also buy Phantom series,” she said.

Shobit Aggarwal, who came with his son and daughter from south Delhi, said he believed that book fair gives children a platform to physically interact with books.

“In an era of digitalisation it is importan that children get a chance to feel the books. And events like this encourages reading habit. Children see others buying or reading books and that further motivates them to buy more,” Aggarwal said.

Even for the publishers, seeing children showing their interest on reading encourages them to come up with more editions of any books.

“It is actually good to see that the kids still have got interest in books. Even we get motivated to participate at book fair. We also get a chance to understand what kind of books children prefer and we try to make more editions of such books,” Vijay Singh of Diamond Publication said.

Being held at Pragati Maidan and co-organised by the National Book Trust (NBT) and ITPO, the annual New Delhi World Book will continue till January 14.