A new initiative suitably gauges this void to lay a new platform for taking authors to campuses across India and placing them right in the middle of young readers.
The 'Literathon' launched by online library INDIAreads is an attempt to bring students closer to the world of books, and foster a culture of reading.
The literacy marathon was kicked off last month at the Delhi School of Economics where Westland released authors' Rashmi Bansal and Deepak Gandhi's new book 'Poor Little Rich Slum' that entails positive stories from the Mumbai's much-talked about slum 'Dharavi'.
The authors held a reading session, interacted with students and signed books for them.
The organisers say they have several other Universities and institutions on their radar, and they would like to take the events out of the Metros to India's second tier cities.
"How many students and common readers get an opportunity to have a word with the authors they love or to just get an autographed book and a picture with them. This is all the more unimaginable in cities like say Saharanpur, Dehradun, Bhubaneshwar or Indore," says Gunjan Veda, the brain behind the idea.
More From This Section
The CEO of INDIAreads says the initiative has been conceptualised to make not just books, but even their writers more accessible, and they are banking on young readers unsatiated appetite.
"We earlier took some authors to IIT Roorkee and Greater Noida and understood that the response among students was very very enthusiastic. We then decided to formalise the initiative. In fact, we are planning for months altogether and would like to have one author onboard every month," Veda told PTI in an interview.
Authors too, she says, have been more than excited about the prospect, because it entails for them an opportunity to get a first hand feedback from their readers.
Literathon comprises of a host of activities including book launches, talks, interactive sessions, book readings, book bazaars, creative writing workshops and online and on-the-spot competitions.
The organisers are also being careful about picking up an author and putting him or her in the right milieu, to customise the product as per the demand.