The future is booked

Nihar Gokhale / TNN / Jun 23, 2007, 00:00 IST

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Bookstores and Hyderabad were never synonymous. But things are beginning to look up for book lovers in the city. Hyderabad Times goes browsing.

Bookstores and Hyderabad were never synonymous. But things are beginning to look up for book lovers in the city. Hyderabad Times goes browsing.Books are said to be man's best friends. But bibliophiles in the city resent the lack of options, as there aren't many quality bookstores, here. Even though book retailers are now looking at the city as a potential market, at present, die-hard readers have no option but to look for book clubs and libraries or order books, online.Kena Wani, a collegian , says, "Ordering online sounds like a convenient idea, but it can't match the joy of browsing through racks of hard-bound books." Book-lover Poulami Chaudhuri of Kanchanbagh voices her concern, "If I want to buy a good novel, it takes me almost an hour to reach the nearest bookstore, which is over nine kilometres away from my place!" And she isn't the only one to feel so. C Karthik of Hyderabad, who currently resides in Pune, says, "There's a book store near the place I am currently living. This is in contrast to the situation back in Hyderabad, where there are a handful of shops. Even they are concentrated in certain areas."
True to his words, the city has a few good bookstores like Walden, A Hussain and Co., Crosswords, Odyssey and Himalaya Book Depot. Most of them are concentrated in Banjara Hills, Jubilee Hills, Punjagutta and Begumpet. The result - people from other areas like Hi-Tech City, Dilsukhnagar and Malakpet are left high and dry. "Even though there are a few shops around Sultan Bazaar, they hardly carry any good non-academic books," sighs Poulami.
However, good news awaits people like Poulami. National book retailers are starting to take an interest in the city. "Earlier, book retail was a tough business as the clientele and the property prices here were not matching," opines Venkata Ramana Murthy, regional operations manager of a book store. His company has just finalised upon opening over six more branches in the city by this year-end . "A good bookstore has to have a large collection. But that wasn't possible, here, a few years back, as there was only a select crowd interested in collecting books," adds Murthy.
A change in the profile of readers is fuelling the book business in the city. Lakshmi, executive partner of Akshara reasons, "Hyderabad is slowly starting to get a metropolitan touch. This promises to change the scenario." Asif Hussain, owner of A Hussain and Co., reflects Lakshmi's sentiments. "The floating population of young people has slowly started relating itself to books written by modern authors in the league of Chetan Bhagat," he says. And it's not only fiction that's in demand. Murthy informs , "The increasing corporate presence in the city has made people feel the need to develop soft skills. This has increased the market for selfhelp books."

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