New Year Book Festival welcomes readers
Book donations needed for charity

Georgia's capital Tbilisi is hosting the second major book event of the year to celebrate the festive New Year's Eve and Christmas period by offering books of all kinds for readers to enjoy.

The Tbilisi New Year Book Festival will involve more than 30 participating publishers, book stores and universities, meaning visitors will not only be able to buy their favourite books but also to meet and talk with authors.

Organised by the Georgian Publishers and Booksellers Association and hosted by the National Library of Georgia, the festival will run for three days starting December 25. The event will involve a range of activities including book presentations, meetings and a special corner where parents can leave their kids while they discover the literature presented at the fair.

Festival staff announced visitors would have the opportunity to donate books for prisoners of the Penitentiary Facility No.3 in Georgia's seaside city Batumi where literary material in Georgian language was scarce.

The book donations, currently being collected in special boxes at Tbilisi book stores and at the main festival event, will be sent to the Batumi prison to try and "change the everyday monotony of the prisoners' lives and wish them a Happy New Year", organisers said.

Held for the second time since it was established in 2014, organisers said the New Year event was conceived due to public interest in having a second yearly book fair, besides the customary Tbilisi International Book Festival that takes place in May.