A chance to ‘gobble up’ your favourite books as the Big Bad Wolf returns
The Big Bad Wolf (BBW) book sale has made its return early this year given the highly enthusiastic response it got when Sri Lanka got its first taste of what is billed the ‘world’s biggest book sale’. While the 2017 sale was held in October, this year the BBW will be open at the Sri Lanka Exhibition & Convention Centre (SLECC) from June 28 to July 8, with 1.5 million books at 60% to 80% discounts. Open 24 hours a day throughout the 11 days, the book lovers’ dream promises 255 hours of nonstop shopping.
Founder and Managing Director of Big Bad Wolf, Andrew Yap, shared the enthusiasm of bringing a “bigger and better” sale. Readers who had the pleasure of browsing last year will remember that children’s books made up the majority. The organizers had not anticipated the high demand for fiction, and were surprised when fiction titles flew off the shelves with amazing rapidity. Founder/ Executive Director of Big Bad Wolf, Jacqueline Ng, said they ‘felt bad that they were depriving Sri Lankans of fiction’. This year BBW promises ‘a much greater, exciting variety of fiction books and bestsellers.’
There will, of course, still be the tantalizing selection of children’s books- bedtime stories, colouring and activity books, educational and interactive books- as well as a huge array of nonfiction titles- all of them at the exhilarating 60%- 80% bargains off the regular retail prices.
Part of the Big Bad Wolf is the Red Readerhood programme. Through this initiative BBW will be giving books to communities in need, supporting the Capital Maharaja Organisation Limited’s Gammadda initiative. Customers too can participate in the worthy initiative by purchasing books at the sale and donating them at the Red Readerhood booth.
As part of another initiative to advocate greater English literacy among Sri Lankans, BBW will partner with the Ministry of Education to provide the local O’ Level top scorers a chance to visit the sale. Last year, top scholarship scorers from flood-stricken areas were invited to the sale and were provided a trolley full of books to take home.
Also, there will be limited edition books up for grabs along with exclusive Big Bad Wolf t-shirts and collector’s items. Starting from this year, shoppers can collect official Big Bad Wolf shopping bags, with the introduction of limited edition reusable cloth bags in a commitment towards sustainability. There will also be a food court courtesy the Sandwich Factory, Pizza Hut and Elephant House among other F&B partners.
Selected invitees will have the chance to attend a special preview of the sale on June 27 from 10 a.m. till 11p.m., a day before the sale opens for the public. Visitors can win preview passes through contests on the Big Bad Wolf Facebook and through their media partners. Apart from this, visitors can claim exclusive benefits at the sale by signing up to be a wolf pack member on https://www.bigbadwolfbooks.com/lk/register/english
The brainchild of Andrew Young and Jacqueline Ng of BookXcess, the primary aim of Big Bad Wolf is to provide affordable books to the public and promote global English literacy. The local partner for Big Bad Wolf is ProRead Lanka, an organization focused on bridging the gap between knowledge accessibility and learning opportunities in Sri Lanka.