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New books eclipse low turnout gloom

University Press Limited unveils Hugh Brammer's ninth book titled "Climate Change, Sea Level Rise & Development in Bangladesh" at book fair

Staff Corresponded
Though Saturday crowds at the Amar Ekushey Granthamela was sparse compared to last Friday's visitors, new books and launching ceremonies of new volumes nevertheless kept its spirits alive.
Environment expert and development worker Hugh Brammer's ninth book titled “Climate Change, Sea Level Rise & Development in Bangladesh" was launched at the University Press Limited (UPL) stall.
"Hugh came to Bangladesh in 1962 as soil surveyor and stayed here till the war and then came back again and worked for FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) until his retirement in 1985,"said Hugh's friend hydrogeologist Peter Ravenscroft from UK.
Brammer, 89, however could not attend for being currently in the UK.
Peter talked about Brammer's admiration for the knowledge of farmers and how he incorporated his 50 years' data and observation from the field on climate change in the book.
He advocated for even the good models
to be tested against facts before formulation of policies based on those, said Peter.
Catharien Terwisscha van Scheltinga, a development worker on climate change and water management, and Dr Md Sirajul Islam, environmental microbiologist from ICDDR, B, were also present.
UPL Director Mahrukh Mohiuddin said Hugh's half-a-decade’s experience in Bangladesh came up in his books, most of which are available at www.uplbooks.com/author/ hugh-brammer, and UPL
Ten other books were launched and 198 new books arrived yesterday.
Meanwhile, a map of the
fair ground was installed near the Bangla Academy stall on the fair's Suhrawardy Udyan portion.
Publishers are yet to give up hope about sales. Milan Kanti Nath, publisher of Anupam, said, "We have seen worse times in the 90s and the fair has only started. I am hopeful that more people will visit the fair in the coming days as the book fair is above all political issues."
Shams Shuvro, general manager of
Pathak Samabesh, said a couple of visitors from outside Dhaka had come to his stall looking for books. "They said that they risked their lives but could not stay away from the fair."
However, sales on the first Friday of this year's fair were lower than the previous years' but higher than the first five days.
“On average we sell books worth Tk 1,000 but yesterday we sold books worth around Tk 5,000-7,000," said a salesperson of a small publication wishing anonymity.
Publishers are looking forward to next weekend for sales figures to climb again.