Books - Calcutta

I had heard a lot about the College Street in Calcutta. I was told by many that it is a paradise for book lovers. There are supposed to be a lot of stores of all shapes and sizes catering to different class and budgets. So with crossed fingers and a lot of expectations, I started off on a bright Saturday morning. The best way to reach this place is to take the Metro to MG Road (yes there is one here as well! ) and then walk. Its about a kilometer from the station. Ask anyone for directions to the Presidency College / College Street.

I was very disappointed when I reached there, the books available are all medical guides, JEE, IAS or CAT preparation books. The novels were nowhere in sight. On inquiring, you realize that all the shops stock novels too. But again the variety is the standard list of pirated books - How to win friends and influence people, The Monk who sold his Ferrari, You can Win or the ubiquitious Harold Robbins or some B Grade sex thriller.

I searched the papers and found out the history of the place - I found some here. Most of the shops have no differentiated offerings at all. The shops stock the same books. They don't care about differentiation. Agreed that it is near the Presidency College, but that does not mean that you stock only study books - how many college students actually buy the study books anyways.

Another sore point is the lack of time to browse through the collection (leave alone the book) before buying it. Most shops are too intrusive as if you are looking at their wives rather than the books in their shop. A slightly peaceful atmosphere would not only increase the number of customers but also increase the number of impluse purchases (at least I am more likely to make an impulse purchase when I am alone rather than when someone else is pestering me to buy something saying that its great).

I did find a couple of places - they are exactly opposite the Presidency College - a store called National Book House and one just a couple of buildings down the street opposite the Coffee House which were to my liking. There you get decent books (mostly new ones only) and you get a discount, but again like the shops on the streets, these too have started stocking educational books and the variety of novels available is little.

Rating - Avoidable - unless you want school and college books. I was expecting a row of book shops with all types of novels and books sort of like a big Blossoms. Unfortunately I found a run down Nai Sarak there.

PS: I asked around in my office today and surfed the net for some alternatives, I have picked a few - would try them out in the next couple of weeks.

This is a repost - it was posted before my blogs were deleted on 26 Feb 2007