Big Bad Wolf Book Fair Heads to Mandalay
By Lwin Mar Htun 15 May 2019
Big Bad Wolf Books, a traveling fair billed as the “world’s biggest book sale”, found success with its first-ever Yangon event earlier this year. Next, organizers are hoping to build on that success by bringing their literary feast to satisfy booklovers in Mandalay.
The sale will run non-stop, 24 hours a day for 11 days from May 31 to June 10 at the Mandalay Convention Centre (MCC). About 1 million books will be on offer at discounts of 50 to 90 percent.
“The books sale event in Yangon was incredibly successful, drawing thousands of people. Now, at the encouragement and request of book enthusiasts from upper Myanmar, we are bringing the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale to Mandalay,” U Myo Aung, organizer of Big Bad Wolf Book Sale Myanmar and director of Ready to Read Myanmar, said at a press conference on May 15.
He added that, “We view this as part of our ongoing effort to ignite a reading movement in Myanmar.”
Big Bad Wolf Books was launched in Malaysia in 2009 by Andrew Yap and Jacqueline Ng. It was brought to Yangon by U Myo Aung last January.
The main purpose of the book sale, according to U Myo Aung, is to allow “more people in Myanmar to read English-language books at very affordable prices. In Myanmar, we have few bookshops selling English-language books, and most of them are expensive. That’s why I want to this event to happen; there will be a selection of books for all reading levels.”
He added, “We hope to create a new generation of readers, and also hope it contributes to the improvement of English literacy rates in Myanmar.”
At the event, booklovers will find a wide offering of genres including novels, science fiction, literature, romance, crime, thriller, business, self-help, cookbooks, architecture and more.
For children, there will be storybooks, activity books, audio books, picture books, coloring books among others.
“During the Big Bad Wolf Books Sale Yangon, I saw a lot of people buying fiction titles and was happy to see it. I hope people in Mandalay will love the books we are offering,” U Myo Aung said.
Dipak Madhavan, group head of marketing at Big Bad Wolf Books, said, “It is a pleasure for all of us at Big Bad Wolf Books to be back in Myanmar again, this time in Mandalay. The overwhelming support we received early this year encouraged us to organize the sale in Mandalay.”
Big Bad Wolf Books is known for being Asia’s biggest market for augmented reality (AR) books, and is the exclusive seller of Little Hippo AR books.
As in Yangon, there will be a book donation counter. The team is collaborating with the “Save the Library” campaign and will accept books from donors.
“Books from donors plus 500 books from The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale team will go to benefit libraries in Myanmar,” U Myo Aung said.
Before opening day, a special VIP Day will be held on May 30. Those with invitations will be admitted, and tickets will also be given away on Big Bad Wolf’s social media page.
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