Let 'em read books

Last year, there were 180 book stalls at the Hyderabad Book Fair. This year, in its 24th edition at People's Plaza on the Necklace road, there are 240 stalls. A 33 per cent increase in the number of retailers. If this is one sign, the streets signs too are unmistakable about the rise in the number of bibliophiles. Four huge bookstores have opened up in the city over the past five months without any decline in the footfalls in the older book stores. While two of the bookstores belong to the Tata group, another belongs to the Swraj Paul's Apeejay Group giving an index of interest by big business groups.

The Hyderabad book fair is the bellwether of which way the book trade is going in the city and is the pulse of reader trends. As the sharp rays of winter sun play with the chill weather, and workers spray water on the ground to keep the dust from rising in the air, the announcer makes it clear. “No plastic bags please. Let's do our bit for the environment, buy and use paper bags. Hundred bags for Rs. 120.” Shopping for books at an exhibition is an unpredictable affair if you have a wandering eye for books. You cannot start at the entrance and end it with the food stalls.

Two college-going girls giggle and debate the choice between P.S. I Love You and the fat tomes of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series. One gentleman walks into the India Publications stall and wants a copy of the Indian Constitution. “We have run out of the copies. Yes they are very good,” says the person manning the stall. In a stall selling books for Rs. 20, Rs. 50 and Rs. 100, a woman admonishes her son to let go of the books. “We have bought enough of them,” she says heading to the counter with an armful of books for making the payment. Unfortunately, not all the stalls are accepting card payment, throwing a spanner in impromptu shopping experience.

“I make it a point to come here to feel that I live in a civilised city. Yes, the book shops have most of the books available here, but here I can see a range that I will have to really hunt. No niches, all the books for the eyes to see,” says a gentleman carrying an Asterix three-book edition. Needless to say, all the stalls have a 10 per cent discount while some religious books have a higher discount but the real put downer is the no discount from the old book dealers who have real gems in their kitty.

A world away in Banjara Hills and Somajiguda are three book shops that stock the newest of releases where you can pick up the volume of Complete Playboy Centrespreads as well as Wolf Hall as well as the full collection of Agatha Christie. It is not just book you can even pick up music CDs, DVDs, gizmos and even toys. You can almost see one bookshop from the other. “There are many factors that go into choosing a location. We decided this is the biggest space we can get and the competition does not figure into the scheme of things as we have the largest inventory in the city,” said the man at one of the big retailers.

“People may think Internet is cannibalising readership but I have discovered it to be a different thing. People's appetite is getting whetted by the information they glean from the net. They watch movies, they read about books, writers and then they place orders for the book,” says one of the oldest book retailers in the city.

local events, hyderabad events, Books