The Karachi International Book Fair runs through today, and in The Express Tribune they take that as a starting point for an incredibly depressing look at Reading books in Pakistan, even as:
The book fair in Karachi has held on for eight years, which is a signal of hope in a city slowly being swallowed up by the barbarism of those who hate culture and want to destroy it.But they argue:
Pakistan is introverted on the basis of a sense of victimhood based on state-invented fiction. Cities such as Rawalpindi, Quetta and Peshawar that boasted some great bookshops are now selling only religious books and most shops have been closed down. Lahore's conservatism, too, has damaged the essentially pluralist pastime of book-reading.Here's hoping things improve again ! (Fiction, people -- read fiction !)