Get your book. Review on Five Best Places to Shop for Books

Living in New Delhi, I guess many of you would think I have a wide range of places to buy books from? Wrong. Of course, there are many book stores here, but I only get books from a few selected places. Each place from where I obtain books has particular advantages of its own.

Although I buy a lot of books, a good percentage of the total number of books I have read comes from Libraries. So the list which follows doesn't only consist of book stores. It contains 5 places from where the average reader might obtain books from, which is precisely the purpose of this review.

1. Near about PVR Anupam Cinema Hall, Saket.

I don't know what you can call that place. But if you want books for cheap, this is it. People sit outside the Cinema Hall with thousands of books kept on the roads. Take your pick and pay the person sitting there(after bargaining to 1/4th of what he says). I got three Agatha Christie's for Rs 10 each(1 US dollar= Rs 50 approx.) But the quality of the books aren't great.

1. Online Sites.

Sorry, can't give many links as I lost my bookmarks. But Online books are a very good means of reading books which cannot be obtained with ease as long you don't mind the strain on your eyes. You can download them within seconds or minutes and read them whenever you want to.

Some sites.

a) https://ipl.org/div/books

This is my favourite.

b)https://netlibrary.com/

Did a search to get this. Haven't checked their lists.

1. The Book Shop(at Khan Market)

This was the first place from where I bought books. I got my first Read-It-Yourself fairy tale books from here. They have a wide range of collection but the store is quite small, unfortunately. But they have decent books, anyway.

1. British Council Library

I used to frequent the BCL a couple of years ago but then they started redecorating and stuff and when I joined it again a couple of months back I found the new design quite disappointing. I preferred it the way it used to be. Even the fiction section seems to be a bit reduced. But that's a minor problem. They have great books of almost every genre, Video Cassettes, CDs, a special Kid's section(where I haven't been so I can't tell about that) and free Internet access to members. Reason enough for me to go there every 2-3 days. The staff are quite helpful and although they have upped the security, it still is a pretty likeable place. They also used to have a cafeteria where Sugar and Spices used to provide food. Earlier, after finishing my German classes at Max Mueller Bhawan(The Deutsche Institut), I used to walk down to the library, get a decent book or two, go to the cafeteria and have some food before returning home.

1. Crosswords(at Ebony, South Ex.)

Undoubtedly, the best place for books I have seen. The Mumbai Crosswords is also very good, maybe a shade better. But its almost the same and the Mumbai one, I seem to remember, was a bit smaller than the Delhi one. Anyway, these comparisons are neither here not there.

They get all decent books quite quickly. They contain books from almost every authors I have heard of. Only CS Lewis was unavailable out of the few authors I wanted to check out. They even have loads of comics and CDs and books belonging to every genre. And they also have facilities for you to sit down and read the book there itself, which is a rare thing in Delhi.