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“Some of my friends and I usually bid books online, but thing beats the aforesaid arsenic coming to the Book Fair with your friends and dilatory browsing done shelves. That acquisition is unmatched. There’s the stereotype that Gen-Z doesn’t read, but that’s not ever true,” says 24-year-old Sankruthii, stepping retired of the 49th variation of the Chennai Book Fair 2026 with a cloth container weighed down by her finds. “Since bookstagram and BookTok hyping definite books, it does propulsion successful a batch of america younger readers,” she adds.
The YMCA crushed successful Nandanam is packed with astir 1000 stalls, and this year, the just hosts 428 Tamil publication stalls and 256 English publication stalls from assorted autarkic and large publications. In 2026, erstwhile determination are e-books, impulsive online buys and Gen-Z being labelled a ‘chronically online’ generation, the just inactive manages to propulsion the younger assemblage who were browsing titles successful some Tamil and English.
Bilal Abdul Majeed, a 22-year-old audio engineering pupil astatine KM Conservatory, spoke astir the tactile acquisition of visiting the publication fair. “I came present looking for poesy books, but I person ended up buying thing wholly different, similar Sigmund Freud. That’s the magic of a monolithic publication just similar this, which volition not spell retired of style,” helium says. Another KM Music Conservatory graduate, Shehnaz, said that this was the archetypal clip she was attending the Chennai Book Fair and recovered it immense compared to the different publication fairs successful antithetic cities.
There were besides groups of young radical moving unneurotic from stall to stall, mostly astir the English sections browsing done literate fabrication and non-fiction during the festive week. It was astir similar a impermanent ‘third space’, a interruption from routines and algorithms.
“Most of Gen-Z has entree to books digitally, and we don’t truly spell hunting for carnal copies anymore. Books are costly for students too, which is wherefore the just does not mostly pull young people,” says Gayathri Mouna, a 5th-year instrumentality pupil visiting with friends. “But the publication just is besides wherever we get discounts. In Chennai, we usually hangout astatine malls and cafes, truthful this is decidedly special, and an yearly ritual,” she adds. Ms. Mouna besides mentions that the sheer standard of the just made her stumble upon a governmental non-fiction rubric she had been looking for, 1 that was not disposable online.
Aarthi S., a 22-year-old techie, says however changeless scrolling and ‘brain rot’ person made it harder to prime up books these days for astir of her peers. Her person Smruti, however, sees it differently, sharing however Gen-Z is caught up successful upskilling, certifications and surviving the occupation marketplace with small clip for leisure reading. Still, some accidental they are consciously gravitating towards Indian literature, which they find much relatable.
While the Gen-Z assemblage came to the Book Fair for antithetic reasons, determination was a shared position connected however attending the lawsuit is simply a celebration, an yearly contented that besides partially evokes puerility nostalgia. Here, readers besides browse, stumble and take freely distant from what is trending online.
