Pop Fiction: Grabbing the attention of the Bangladeshi young readers 

Nilkhet is famous for its legacy of being the country's most popular book-selling market. Suppose You are walking through the sidewalk of the Nilkhet; you definitely would see rows of books. Among those books, perhaps you will definitely see a writer named Colleen Hoover. Nilkhet and its sidewalks are crowded with popular fiction, also known as pop novels, written by Colleen Hoover and authors like her.  

Like Humayun Ahmed, Samresh Mazumder, Sunil Gangapadhyay, etc, Colleen Hoover, an American novelist, has become one of the best-seller authors of our Nilkhet.

Not just Colleen Hoover, famous pop novel writer Lauren Asher, Abby Jimenez, Tahereh Mafi, Ali Hazelwood, Emily Henry, Ana Huang, Runyx, Lauren Roberts, El James, and Jojo Moyes are also some of the best-seller authors at Nilkhet. 

Sohrab Hossain, a 50-year-old vendor who has been selling books on the sidewalks of Nilkhet since the 1990s, is being asked about English pop novels. He retorted, "In the last 7-8 years, we have seen such a demand for English books. Before this, we did not even know the names of these books. Customers come and ask if there is this book or whether there is that book. We bring only the books we hear about the most."

On the other hand, readers of this book get to know about them through their online friends, various social media groups, and Instagram influencers.

Some of them bought their first pop novel out of curiosity. Booktube, the YouTube channel that creates content for pop novels, has also contributed to making some pop novel readers.

Hailey in Bookland, Jordaline Reads, Amber Reads, and Booked with Jameelah are some of the popular booktubers. 

No matter how they got to know about these pop novels, all of them have a common point, and that is buying books from the Nilkhet. Jasia Akter Ema, 23, a university-going student, expressed it, "I like to make physical purchases, so nilkhet is my number one stop, then Bangla Bazar. And I also have some favorite online pages that provide me with the best quality of books."

Since original copies of these books cost 10$ to 20$ and most of our readers are students, they can't afford the original copies. So, their ultimate destinations are Nilkhet or Baglabazar. 

"Basically, read fiction. It is like my ultimate coping mechanism. How else would you get to live a thousand lives in the span of the only one? The beauty of fiction is that it makes you feel things on a visceral level," Jasia Akter Ema was explaining why she likes to read pop novels. 

Readers find pop novels light and subtle. Pop novels help them to see the world from different perspectives, and they help them to cheer the mood. Easy entry to the story makes them more popular with young readers. 

Romance, mystery, horror, romance-thriller, fantasy, etc., are the popular genre of pop fiction.

Most pop novels are recommended for readers aged 17 or more due to the fact that they often deal with heavy subject matter like crime, sexual behaviors, and complicated human relationships.

[email protected]