The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale, an English language book sale from Malaysia, is coming to Yangon in January 2019 for the first time, Andrew Yap, the founder of The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale said this week.
With over 20,000 titles, more than 1 million books at 50 percent-90 percent discounts, the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale in Yangon will take place from January 18 to 28 at Myanmar Event Park with free admission, Yap said.
The book sale will open 24 hours a day “for people who live outside the Yangon city to also be able to come whenever they arrive, even late at night,” said Jacqueline Ng, the other founder of the book sale.
“Myanmar is experiencing tremendous socio-economic changes and there is an increasing demand for affordable books due to the growing importance of English proficiency,” said U Myo Aung, the Myanmar organiser of the Big Bad Wolf Sale in Yangon. “We understand that establishing a knowledge-based economy, nurturing the next generation of readers and embracing change in Myanmar, in-line with the government’s policies and goals can be achieved by igniting a reading movement in Myanmar.”
The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale launched their Myanmar Facebook page on Tuesday with a post announcing the confirmed arrival of the book sale in the city, which is getting more than 1,000 likes. “The response was pretty good,” Ng said. “People have heard of Big Bad Wolf before, which I’m quite surprised. I believe it’s going to be great.” The target of the book sale is to have at least 500,000 customers, Yap said.
Most of the books are imported from the UK and the US and the genres range from novels, non-fiction, literature and more, while Children’s books are highlighted in the book sale. Yep introduced the augmented reality books they sell which allow children to read books with more interaction by scanning the pages with an AR application on mobile devices.
“Many people, especially in Southeast Asia we do not have or grow up in an environment that encourages reading,” said Ng. “We chose countries where English is not the first language. The primary market for the audience like this will be children, because when the parents do not read or understand English, they will want their children to be interested in the English language.”
Founded in 2009 in Malaysia, the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale started under a slogan of “Changing the world one book at a time.” Before coming to Myanmar, the book sale has been to seven countries and regions around Asia, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates and Sri Lanka.
