I remember the excitement as a kid, when a mobile circulating library first made its appearance on our street. It was just books in a large van that showed up on Sundays at the street corner and let you climb in, and look around the dusty pile, pick out your favorite comics or mysteries.

Same old excitement, new technology. If you live in Bangalore, here’s one more reason to never leave the couch...an online library that will let you login and search their entire catalogue online, select the books you want, and have them delivered or picked up after reading from your home or office by courier.

Sounds like urban myth, but it isn’t.

Easylib, with its store in Koramangala, and also on the web at www.easylib.com has been in existence since 2002 at least, that I know of. Its run by the friendly Vanishree Mahesh, a techie returned from the US. You can either go to the physical library, or like me, do all that browsing online from home. They do charge like 10 bucks for a delivery/pickup but its all worth it.

A fair number of good books are on hand, and new ones keep being added, some at members’ requests. The selection is generally a cut above the usual circulating library. It also has book clubs and poetry reading sessions, etc , though these are not happening online. (Podcast, anyone?)

Much before that happens, I still have two things I would like to see in this lib - 1) Abstracts or blurbs for the books, so you can browse better 2) user reviews.