It's raining books

The choicest selection of books, crisp pages and newly bound. Wait, don't shrug your shoulders and tell yourself, “I can't afford it,” There's good news — you can. Strand Bangalore Monsoon Festival offers a range of books from the intellectually stimulating to the creatively inspiring at incredibly affordable prices. “This festival makes it possible for anyone to build a library of their own as we are offering discounts from 20 to 80 per cent,” says Vidya Virkar, proprietor, Strand Bookstore.

The books on sale are high-end, exclusively selected by the bookstore. “India's intelligentsia — Jawaharlal Nehru, APJ Abdul Kalam, Narayanan Murthy, to name a few — have grown up reading books from our store, so it is our endeavour, through this festival, to reach out and bring as many people within the fold of readership. There are rare books on offer at the festival. For example ‘Ideas: A History from fire to Freud' by Peter Watson is a book you won't find anywhere else in the country,” says Vidya. The books are neatly arranged under different categories from science, technology, classics, architecture, and art to design, fashion, photography, computers, spirituality and comics. Classics such as Shakespeare's plays, Thomas Paine's “Rights of Maine”, Ovid's “Love Poems”, rare art books “The drawings of Rembrandt-a new study”, “Leonardo Da Vinci-the complete works” are priced between Rs. 100 to Rs. 1,000There are unique books for children of all ages too. “Children's books are available at reasonable prices. The festival presents an opportunity for children to build a library of their own.” Rajini Murali, librarian of National Public School, Rajajinagar looks forward to the festival every year, “Our school has been buying books from the Strand festival for six years now. Their selection of books is excellent.” Azhar Fatima, librarian of National Public School, Koramangala agrees with Rajini, “The festival has always had a wide, good range of books, covering every subject. The best part is they are available at huge discounts.”

Full report here Hindu

Book retail legend dead

TN Shanbhag, founder of the Strand Book Stall, died on February 27. He was 61.
Shanbag started Strand book stall, or really a kiosk, in 1948 in what was then Strand Cinema in Bombay. A pioneer almost in the trade, his stall soon acquired a name for itself.
This was followed by a number of celebrities becoming to the stall, which grew in and stature.
He is the only retailer to have been awarded the Padma Shri for selling books!