Popular Award Nominations for
The Economist Crossword Book Awards 2012 announced
The Economist Crossword Book Award in Association with Principal Retirement Advisors & Standard Chartered Bank released the nominations for its Popular Award Category for “The Economist Crossword Book Award 2012” today. This year, The Economist Crossword Book Awards has commemorated its 11th year anniversary by releasing ‘Crossword E Book Of Excerpts’, sharing excerpts from the books of previous winners, spanning the last decade.
The Popular Award Nominations have been chosen on the basis of book sales sold in the publishing year 2011. Unlike other categories, the Popular Award does not have a jury but is instead chosen by avid-readers who vote for their favourite author and book. The voting process is done through both an online and offline method. To vote online, readers can log on to www.crossword.in for details or they can visit a Crossword near them and cast their vote. The winner will be announced on 18th October 2012 at the final awards ceremony.
Popular Award Nominations:
1. Revolution 2020 By Chetan Bhagat (Rupa Publications)
2. The Secret of The Nagas By Amish (Westland Books)
3. Women & Weight Loss Tamasha By Rujuta Diwekar (Westland Books)
4. Can Love Happen Twice? By Ravinder Singh (Penguin Books)
5. The Incredible Banker by Ravi Subramanian (Rupa Publications)
6. River of Smoke By Amitav Ghosh (Penguin Books)
7. The Habit of Winning by Prakash Iyer (Penguin Books)
8. Get To the Top By Suhel Seth (Random House)
9. I Have a Dream By Rashmi Bansal (Westland Books)
10. The Winning Way By Harsha & Anita Bhogle (Westland Books)
The Crossword E Book of Excerpts includes excerpts from winning books dating from 1998-2010, allowing readers to know more about the winning titles and authors of the past decade, engaging readers to pick up these books. The e-book is compatible with all smart phones and tablets. The link for the same can be downloaded from www.crossword.in
Speaking on the Popular Awards nominations, Mr. Kinjal Shah, COO – Crossword Bookstores said, “We are pleased to announce the Popular Award nominations for the 11th Economist Crossword Book Awards. It gives our readers a chance to connect and be a part of process where they choose their favourite authors and reads for the year and also comes as great validation for the nominees who have been chosen based on popularity. ”
About the Awards
The Economist Crossword Book Award is the only Indian award that recognizes and rewards good writing and also actively promotes Indian authors and their books. Last year the Award received 300 valid entries in the above mentioned categories which have now grown by 10% for the current year, thus making the awards representative of the best of contemporary Indian literature.
When the book awards were launched in 1998, there was one cash prize of Rs. 2 lakhs for the best original work of fiction in English by an Indian author, and it was won by Allan Sealy for The Everest Hotel. In 1999, a new category was added Indian Language Fiction Translation into English and the cash prize was increased to 3 lakhs in each category. In 2005, two more award categories were added English Non-Fiction, as well as the Popular Award. In 2009 award for Indian Childrens writing was introduced thus making it the only Indian literary award that rewards authors across 5 different categories.
The Economist Crossword ‘Popular Award ‘offers readers an opportunity to vote for their favourite book from the list of best-selling books published last year. These books are independent of the shortlisted books across the other categories and are purely selected based on their sales volume across all Crossword Bookstores in the previous year. The Popular award has a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh & the trophy.
Past Winners
Crossword Popular Award
2010- Ashwin Sanghi for ‘Chanakya’s Chant’
2009- Rajni Bakshi for ‘Bazaars, Conversations & Freedom’
2008 – Pallavi Aiyar for ‘Smoke and Mirrors: An Experience of China’
2007 – Namita Devidayal for ‘The Music Room’
2006 – Kiran Desai for ‘The Inheritance of Loss’
2005 – Rahul Bhattacharya for ‘Pundits from Pakistan: On tour with India 2003-04’
About Crossword:
Crossword, with Eighty One stores, across Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bhopal, Bengalooru, Chennai, Delhi, Durgapur, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kota, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Nagpur, Nasik, Pune, Siliguri, Udaipur, Vapi, Vadodara and Vijayawada is India’s fastest growing chain of bookstores & has pioneered the lifestyle bookstore concept in India. Crossword was ranked the 6th most admired retailer in India by Business world for the year 2006; it was the only book retailer in the top 10. Crossword won the Reid & Taylor Award for Best Retailer of the year – Leisure & Specialty at the India Retail Summit 2005 & 2007& 2009. It also won the Star Retailer Award for the Best Lifestyle Retailer in Books & Music in 2011. Crossword won the Retailer of the Year Award – Leisure (Books, Music and Gifts Category) at the Images Retail Awards 2005 & 2007& 2009. Crossword won the Debutant E tailer of the year – books – at India eRetail Awards 2012. Crossword received the Federation
of Indian Publishers Award for excellence in Publishing for the year 2004 on 18th June 2005 at the hands of Shri Arjun Singh, Minister of Human Resource Development.
Crossword Bookstores Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary Company of Shopper’s Stop Ltd – India’s leading department store chain. The Holding Company inter-alia also acts as a Master Franchisee of the Company.
About The Economist:
With a growing global circulation (now 1.5 million including both print* and digital) and a reputation for insightful analysis and perspective on every aspect of world events, The Economist is one of the most widely recognized and well-read current affairs publications. The paper covers politics, business, science and technology, and books and arts, concluding each week with the obituary. Its website (www.economist.com) offers articles from the past ten years, in addition to web-only content such as blogs, debates and audio/video programmes. The Economist is now available to download for reading on Android, iPhone, or iPad devices.
