Its early morning on Diwali day in October 2009 and as I wait for the kids to get up - we have to go to a temple today and visit our parents, I came across this article on Shakespeare & Company, the venerable bookstore in Paris (I love this store) (see link - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/holiday_type/travel_and_literature/article6874825.ece) - just prompted me to think about some of the world's greatest bookstores.
Reading maketh a man - said Francis Bacon and some of these bookstores have made reading and browsing such a great pleasure.
Until the mid 80's, my only exposure to great bookstores was Higginbothams on Mountroad in Chennai. Regular visits to Higginbothams and spending hours there was a monthly pastime. The other pastime was to visit the British Council Library also on Mountroad and the Central Library at Egmore also in Chennai. Another favourite place was Oxford bookstore next to USIS near the Nungambakkam flyover. I grew up on these places.
In the mid 80's came Landmark bookstore in Chennai in Nungambakkam. This was an alien concept to all of us, but it opened my eyes to what a modern bookstore can be.
When I moved to Hyderabad in 1991, I discovered Walden opposite Amrutha Mall in Begumpet. It was so spacious and similar to the Landmark store at Chennai - I later learnt that Sriram and Anita (who had set up Landmark had set up Walden as well). My office was at Amrutha Mall and I was still a bachelor those days and to Laxmi (my wife), I was dating the bookstore more than her !
We moved to Mumbai in 1992 and by then the Crossword Bookstore at Mahalaxmi had opened. I had my first introduction to Sriram then (he is now a dear friend). Crossword took the level of bookstores to the next level - a coffee shop in the bookstore, great bookreading events, authors visiting - all added to the excitement. I was sold on it.
We used to live in Churchgate those days and I discovered the Strand Bookstore. What a place - packed with books, it was a such a cozy experience there. Shanbag, who died recently, has created such a great institution.
In the middle of all this, I discovered second hand books as well - the Lake Market in Calcutta, the big book fair at Calcutta and the pirated books sold on the pavements in South Mumbai - were all waiting to be discovered by me. I cherish to this day, the Anthology of American Poems, that I picked up in one of the second hand pavement stores in Calcutta - it gives me hours of reading pleasure.
Subsequently, in Mumbai, we moved to Khar and discovered the Danai bookstore off Linking Road. A tiny place, it was once again very cozy and a great place to visit.
In 1995, when I stayed in London for a few months at Buckingham Gate, I discoverd the One Pound Penguin books. I used to buy these at the Army and Navy Store on Victoria Street. In 1996 or so, I visited Oxford and discovered the Oxford Bookstore. It was a great place and having visited the Oxford store in Chennai, it was a dream come true for me to visit THE Oxford bookstore at Oxford. I have made several trips to Oxford since and never fail to visit the store each time and buy something. Strangely, I have never managed to visit the Bodlein, where a copy of every book published in the UK is said to be kept.
I joined Shoppers Stop in 2000 and discovered that we owned Crossword Bookstores. Sriram and Anita became good friends. I also discovered the challenges of running bookstores. It was a great pleasure to be part of the bookstore revolution in expanding the Crossword bookchain across the country. Sriram is a fanatic. I discovered the power of recommendations and "Sriram recommends" became a brand - those handwritten little white cards with Sriram's personal recommendations. I used to visit Sriram at his residence and that was my first experience at what a good library at home can be - hundreds of books.
The other venerable "bookstore" in Mumbai known to south indians is the Giri Trading Agency in Matunga - which sells all the Hindu religious books. It is an institution for all the Tambrams who want to pick up the books on Bhagvad Gita, or the latest carnatic classical cassette.
Then came Singapore - I fell in love with the Borders bookstore at the junction of Orchard Road - open till midnight - the beauty of this place was the stacks of magazines and people came in and spent hours reading through these magazines for free. I have spent hours with my daugther there. I still remember rushing early morning to buy one of the first Harry Potter books and being interviewed by one of the FM channels along with my daughter. I also discovered Kinokuniya bookstore.
In the middle of all this, came the Amazon revolution - I remember debating for hours while working for Shoppers stop the merits of an e-store vs a brick and mortar store. But what a revolution Amazon has become.
Amazon became my staple at London and almost all my purchases was through amazon - i discovered the pleasure of buying with a click and getting books delivered in 48 hours at the doorstep. But I did not miss the pleasure of browsing through books and magazines, thanks to the ubiquitous WH Smiths all over London. The WH Smith at Victoria Station in London was a favourite haunt, as I waiting for the announcement of the next train home. Waterstones on Oxford street was also a favourite, but frankly, it did not have the same charm as some of the others that I visited.
The other favourite place to pick great books for a Pound or so are the Charity shops in London, where people give away books. These books are sold by the charity shops for a song. (The charity shop concept is fantastic in London - Different charities have set up highstreet stores, at concessional rentals and manned by volunteers. People give away different things to these stores - books, cutlery, unwanted gifts etc. These charities then sell these stuff at rock bottom prices with the proceeds being used for the charitable purpooses. Very green as well, since it recycled stuff).
I was always told about Hatchards' at Piccadilly square as the oldest bookstore in London, but never managed to visit in the years that I lived there.
In 2007, we had a great holiday in Paris and this was when I managed to finally see Shakespeare & Company, the venerable bookstore, across from the Notre Dame Cathedral. George Whitman has created an institution. A two level store, tiny though, as you climb the stairs, you see this sign which says - "Be Kind to Strangers, lest they
be Angels in Disguise". I have lots of photographs of me and the kids at the store. Its easy to fall in love with this. On a bright summer day, having a coffee on the Parisian sidewalk outside Shakespeare & Company is indeed fantastic. Just a few yards away from Shakespeare and Company is the Latin Quarter, where the narrow streets with its colourful merchandise make for a great visit.
Sadly, after coming back to Mumbai, I have not had much time to visit bookstores, other than the Crossword bookstore at Inorbit,which frankly has deteriorated. I now buy all my books on the web mostly through Indiaplaza.in, where I am a member or through Flipkart.
This summer, when we holidayed in the US, I discovered two great stores - the first was the famous Barnes & Noble on Fifth Avenue, billed as the largest bookstore in the world. Great store and you can spend hours there.
But the other great bookstore, an institution, that I got to visit was the Harvard Bookstore at Harvard Square. We had driven into Boston from NJ that afternoon and were intending to stay in Boston until the following afternoon and we had a list of things to see - Harvard, Whale watching at the Boston Harbour and the Walden Pond. We checked into one of the hotels outside Boston. The reception told us that there is a Red Sox game on that evening and tickets were available. I wanted to go to the game. Was vetoed - so we decided to spend the evening at Harvard. We drove to Cambridge and parked our car a distance away from Harvard and had a nice pleasant walk to Harvard. Spent a little time on the Harvard steps - talking to my kids and hoping to inspire them to come there someday. We walked around Harvard square and saw the bookshop. We spent a while browsing the store and picked up a book as memory of having been there. (I think i still have the cash memo somewhere !). By then it was late evening and we decided to have an Indian meal - I was sure that there will be some Indian restaurants around - we discovered Bombay Club - a great restaurant, which served everything from Dosas to a full meal. It also served Pani Puris as an addon during the meal ($5 unlimited for the panipuris). We sauntered after dinner and drove back to our hotel. It was a great evening - very well spent.
It is such a pleasure to visit these bookstores. I ensure that I have a book purchased from each of these places. I dont read too much these days, but my wife shudders everytime I buy another of the books - she screams - "but you dont read them fully Giri". I remind her that a booklover books does not necessarily to read them fully and it is quite common to read a few pages only. And she is also exasperated by my habit of reading 3-4 books at a time, all half finished. We have given away lots of books to charity, as part of my wife's spring cleaning.
A couple of years ago I discovered http://www.goodreads.com/, where you can tell your friends what books you have read and write your own reviews. Sadly, I have not been able to keep this updated.
I have been watching the rapid progress of Kindle from Google - I have yet to discover what it means to download an e-book and read on Kindle. I shudder at the thought of not having a book that I can thumb through, leave a bookmark, but I do recognise the convenience of an ebook.
I discovered audio books - though I have not had listened to an audio book for any of my reading, it meant a lot to my son, who fell to sleep every night listening to Horrid Henry on a tape.
Google has spoken of this great project of digitising all the books - I am a great supporter of the idea - it can make the books so accessible to all. I also love the Google (or is it Amazon ?) of reading inside a book, where you can get a glimpse of a chapter.
In my years at Diageo, I discovered Library Bars, where you could read a book over dinner and a cigar over a drink and some billards as well. And of course, the million airport lounges, where you read all sorts of things. I love the Airport bookstores as well - today I find the Landmark bookstore at the Hyderabad Airport very well stocked.
I am also beginning to be fascinated by the Twiter novels (@epicretold) and by SMS books. A few years ago, in Singapore, as part of a Guinness promotion, we got our Guinness drinkers to write a book - different people wrote up the different chapters over a 3 month period and a motely, funny book emerged. So much for innovation in books, publishing et al.
Two weeks ago, I was a panelist at an Economist CFO Seminar and on the panel were Sriram and I. While I was dryly talking on the topic, here was Sriram quoting from various sources and linking it up to what makes a great CFO. The man truly lives books.
So thats it guys and my love for books and bookstores.
Happy Diwali - this certainly is a great way for me to begin a Diwali morning, though my wife is reminding me every minute to get ready to go to the temple.
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