Selling books must be a thriving, profitable business in Bangalore – the vendors are sprouting up everywhere in recent times, on the pavements in the streets, small book fairs and the stores with buyback schemes.
One good outcome I assume is that number of book readers have gone up and are more sensible in selecting the good books from the pack. The bad side of the coin is the blatant violation of copyrights and cheap imitative paperbacks available at throwaway prices, less than couple of dollars. So far, there has been no crackdown on this piracy by the law authorities.
Be it Wodehouse novels, management classics (“Built to Last”), spiritual, motivational books (Kiyosaki) or the notorious “How Opal Mehta..”, you will find it here in the dozens. For an avid reader who is also wallet conscious, this is a paradise come true. Surely, one wouldn’t pay 100 bucks for a management book while it’s available for couple of bucks? Certainly, not I!
Bangalore Book Festival was held in Palace Grounds for couple of weeks and more than 50 reputed Indian publishers/bookstores had put up stalls with a diverse collection of books catering to all masses.
I picked up “The Nudist on the Late Shift” by Po Bronson, a compelling read so far – about Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurs, salespeople, programmers and newcomers. It’s been fun reading the tales of the Valley. The author has vividly portrayed the characters and the events as they unroll creates a sense of awe at the accomplishments by the Valley’s residents.
Thomas Watson’s biography (IBM) was hard to pass up, Guy Kawasaki’s “How to drive your competition crazy”, “A Brave New World” by Huxley and “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding were others I bought.
