Though doomsday surveys and newspapers tell of iconic book stores closing and warn that denizens of the city — who are ready to splurge at malls and flea markets every weekend — will soon stop reading for pleasure, a little browsing across the aisles of various book stores show that all is not lost, at least not in Delhi.
In fact, the love for books has only increased. “In the past six months, the Delhi and NCR region leads in terms of book sales, followed by Bangalore and then Mumbai,” said an Amazon.in spokesperson, the leading International web-portal which delivers books, among other things.
“The books category is one of Amazon’s largest selling categories and, 30 per cent of the books sold fall in the Indian fiction writing pool with books for children and young adults being 15 per cent,” the spokesperson said
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The recently concluded World Book Fair is another case in point. Titles from corners of the world, previously unheard of by the average Indian reader, were sold like hot cakes. Publishers made double the profit they made in the previous two years put together.
“We had a footfall of 10 lakh people in nine days and although the publishers wouldn’t reveal their exact sales figures, they made twice as much profit than they did in the last two years put together,” said M.A. Sikandar, Director of the National Book Trust, which organised the fair. People coming with empty suitcases and overnight bags to carry away books were a common sight during the fair which concluded in February.
“I spent roughly Rs. 6,000 on books I had never heard of until I went browsing in the fair,” said Ishita, a post-graduate student who plans to visit again.
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“The Capital is the best place to be in if you like to read, there are weekly book bazaars, there are plenty of opportunities to meet authors who come for book-signings and readings and there are so many pavement and second-hand book stores in various neighbourhoods,” she added.
However, there are some citizens who are of the opinion that Delhi might lead in book sales due to the fact that good libraries are hard to come by.
There are the strictly academic libraries which students and professors frequent and municipal libraries which stock dated and regional books. But, as far as the latest best-sellers or critically-acclaimed books are concerned they find no place in these libraries, at least in the Capital.
British Council, one of the city’s iconic libraries, said membership has shown a steady decline in recent years prompting them to take on a new role as a place to meet and engage in discussion and debate.
They also added that they were trying to promote reading for pleasure by arranging storytellers from the U.K. to visit the city.