455,000 visit TUYAP Istanbul Book Fair in nine days

This year's TUYAP International Istanbul Book Fair attracted 455,000 bibliophiles before wrapping up on Sunday evening at the TUYAP Fair and Convention Center in Istanbul’s Buyukcekmece district, the fair's organizers said on Monday. The 32nd edition of the fair, which opened on Nov. 2 with "Tarih: Gecmicteki Gelecek" (History: The Future in the Past) as its main theme, hosted 690 publishers and nongovernmental organizations from 28 countries, according to a press release issued Monday by TUYAP Fairs and Exhibitions Organization, Inc. The fair ran concurrently with the 23rd Istanbul Art Fair -- ARTIST 2013, which was also held at the TUYAP Fair Center and presented numerous exhibitions by over 100 local and international art galleries and institutions. The nine-day fair featured 300 events from book signing events to panel discussions on the publishing industry. The fair's guest country was China, and the writer of honor was historian-academic Taner Timur. Representatives from the Istanbul-based Pegasus publishing house, one of the publishers featured in the fair, said there was more interest in the fair compared to previous years, adding that the number of book lovers between the ages of 10 and 35 were the highest, with attendance dominated by female readers, the Cihan news agency reported.