The Georgetown Reading and Research Centre   will be staging  what it  describes as “one of the largest book exhibitions locally”  when its Guyana Book Festival 2010 opens tomorrow and runs until July 31.

The book festival will be held at the centre’s location at 179 Waterloo Street and on display will be more than 200,000 books ranging from pre-school to university level, a press release stated.  The book festival will be open Sunday to Sunday from 9:00am to 6:00pm.

Director of the Centre, Rupert Hopkinson  is quoted as saying that the festival “trumpets the call to increase literacy in Guyana.”

He also noted that the 2010 book festival at this time will be a good occasion for students to acquire more reading material as they proceed on the long school vacation.

The release said further that there will be lots of toys, pens, pencils,  more than 50 backpacks and other items that will be given free with purchases.

In addition, buyers will get at least one free book,  no matter the amount of the purchase.

And prices start as low as $40.00.

A new feature of the sale is ‘box purchases’ where a person can  make a selection and if it fits a small box the buyer will receive a 50%  discount on purchases.

The Georgetown Reading and Research Centre was established on January 2, 1997 and to mark its 13th anniversary, it will be giving away 13,000 books this year. To ensure that the target is met, the release stated, tables with more than 100 books will be placed in front of the location every day for the duration of the festival and members of the public will be invited to “take a book”.