COLOMBO, June 27 (Xinhua) -- The Big Bad Wolf Sale, one of the world's largest book fairs, kicked off in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo on Wednesday 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, inaugurated in Colombo by Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, will be open 24 hours a day. It will end on July 8.

Minister Ka0riyawasam said during the inauguration that the Education Ministry had supported the sale and it was part of the government's plan to promote reading among adults and students.

Dipak Madhavan, Malaysian partner of Big Bad Wolf Books said the sale would provide readers 255 hours of non-stop book shopping and expose them to a variety of books.

"This 24-hour book sale concept is to allow all those who are travelling from outskirts of Colombo and those who are working late, to still come and get their reading needs at any time of the day and night," he said.

Nishan Wasalathanthri, director of ProRead Lanka (Pvt) Ltd., said the book fair is aimed to help improve English literacy among Sri Lankans and to increase awareness on the value of quality English books.

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