Bull run for share market books at Madurai fair

After a two-year surge at the Madurai Book Fair, the Tamil epic ‘Ponniyin Selvan' has finally taken a backseat, giving way to books on trading and investments.Publishers say that this time around at the annual fair, books such as ‘The Trolls of Wall Street', ‘One Up on Wall Street', ‘The Polycycle Investor', ‘Let's Talk Mutual Funds' and ‘How to Day Trade for a Living' and Tamil books such as ‘Alla Alla Panam' (So much money) are flying off the shelves. "People have started seeing trading and investing as an extra source of income and they are looking for information on these topics. So, they come looking for specific books," says J Vignesh of Prism Books.A Anandamohan from Kilakku Pathipagam says the publishing house brings out one or two books on these topics every year. "Our nine-part series on ‘Alla Alla Panam' is one of our most popular. The trend is catching up across Tamil Nadu," he says."The demand for these books is an outcome of the rise of actuarial economics, a field of economics that studies financial or forecasting economics. People, organisations and govts want to make their money work," says C Muthuraja, associate professor and head of economics at American College. "It is a healthy sign when people want to learn financial literacy. We need books which are more in-depth and scientific in their approach as well."The classics and children's books are also some of the best-sellers at the fair. "Children want to try their hand at puzzles and problem-solving, which is encouraging," says G Nivetha, a teacher who brought her students to the fair.Religion too seems to be catching on, with stalls set up on Hinduism, Islam and other faiths. "People hear discourses and come looking for specific topics like Upanishads. Some of the books children pick at our stall are more intriguing too," says R Gopalsamy from Chinmaya Mission Publications.This is the 17th edition of the book fair organised by the district administration, BAPASI and directorate of public libraries.