COLOMBO, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Big Bad Wolf Sale, one of the world's largest book fairs, kicked off in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo on Thursday with over 1.5 million books on sale.

Founded by Managing Director Andrew Yap and Executive Director Jacqueline Ng in Malaysia, the sale is aimed at encouraging the reading of English books at reasonable prices.

This year's book fair was inaugurated in Colombo, by Jacqueline Ng, Dipak Madhavan and Nishan Wasalathanthri, the Sri Lankan partners of Big Bad Wolf Books.

"The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale will come as an ideal platform for people who love to read and gain knowledge in the process and over the years, we have seen many young readers who have bought their first English book at the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale and have developed themselves into well-read individuals," Jacqueline said at the launch of the fair in Colombo.

She added The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale aims to ensure that everyone can easily access English books, including the underprivileged communities.

Organizers said the book fair will be held in Sri Lanka till Oct. 28, operating 24 hours over the weekends.

The Big Bad Wolf held its sale in Colombo last year where over 200,000 Sri Lankans visited the book fair.