It would have been a lazy siesta at my balcony on a Sunday afternoon if not for reading a Malcolm Gladwell that I picked up at the annual Strand book festival (SBF) this morning, The day suddenly seems to have brightened and the soul feels refreshed after the visit to the book festival, especially when yesterday was a working day to compensate for the lost day last week due to the Bandh.My thoughts go back to the mid nineties when i lived in Bombay. It was almost a pilgrimage i made to either Bajaj Bhavan at Nariman Point or the Sunderbai Hall just outside of Churchgate to be greeted by a thick,fresh but familiar smell of the paperbacks that beckoned an impulsive splurge on books at the Strand Festival. Luckily years later, but absolutely with the same zest, The Stand book festival has kicked off to popular reception at Bangalore (Thanks Ms Vidya Virkar). Strand Book Shop was always known to offer great discounts on books. A couple of things other than the fat discount that has left me amazed is the horizontal arrangement of books for display - So one doesn’t have to strain his neck to read the title from the spine of the book. It is hard to find books of your choice in the SBF since the collection is huge and eclectic with a wide range of fiction, classics, children, business and self-help books. My recommendation is to go there with an open mind and a flexible budget to do justice to the numerous titles that are available and not to mention the coffee table books (if you are into it- I simply love them and two favorites i could remember were the Reader's Digest's book on the US interstate highways and another one to commemorate the Everest expedition complete with breathtaking photographs). They stock from every major publishing house – McGraw Hill, Penguin, Pelican, Bantam, Viking, Sterling, Allen Lane. Rupa, Harper Collins..You name it and they have it
My inclination to buy non-fiction has been the simple fact that I think learnings from these books can lend much to life, career and aid general thought and daily conversation. Which is why books like Adventure Capitalist, Tipping Point, Freakonomics, The World is Flat, and Outliers are such absolute must haves on your bookshelf. I cannot imagine discussing The Kite Runner or The White Tiger or Chetan Bhagat for more than 10 minutes! I can rave about them, listen to someone talking about it and nod, but that's pretty much about it.
Coming back to Strand, Today, on a Sunday morning, I was disappointed to see very few youngsters at the Festival. Most of the visitors were in the age group of 35+ and that included a lot of people in the 45+ range. My fears of kids not reading enough and parents not insisting that they do is now almost confirmed. I have always bought books for myself and to gift to close friends and colleagues at work and as for me, I am eternally thankful to TN Shanbhag & his team for introducing me to the likes of Dave Barry, Jim Rogers,Rohington Mistry,Nicolas Taleb,William Dalrymple, Ruskin Bond (for the second time) and many others.. and Aesop fables,Charles Dickens and Andersen Tales to my daughter in an age when most of her peers are reading and listening to Barbie princess. I am now as eclectic as the collection in their store and look forward to enjoying the company of a dozen books that i have chosen to read in the next few weeks – each one with a cup of freshly brewed filter coffee in hand and the lovely July weather to savor.
...till then...happy reading
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