guwahati one of the most awaited events of the year the annual book fair took off at the assam engineering institute grounds in the city on wednesday the fair was inaugurated by litterateur homen borgohain who said during the opening ceremony the popularity of books cannot be subdued in this fast life where people are slowly becoming lonely books are their only solace so publishers should try and cater to new breeds of readers and find out what they want to read borgohain also said people should encourage their children to read more and added its an irony that parents do not hesitate to buy expensive motorbikes for their children which have been the cause of the maximum number of accidents in recent times but are reluctant to buy them books costing a couple of thousands of rupees this mindset should be changed he said pratibha roy a noted writer from odisha who was also present in the meeting said more stress should be put on translation because this is the only way in which exchange of literature can take place and we can reach out to more readers moreover it is wrong to say that regionalism is an obstacle as literature can never be regional its merely the language that needs to be changed the first day of the book fair saw a huge crowd with children and young college students standing outside stalls even as stall owners were setting up their wares and opening cartons of books