Map your way through the best book clusters found in India’s five metropolis
If you have a penchant for retreating into pages, even an overflowing bookshelf is not enough. Check out the five amazing book markets pan-India you should visit at least once!
College Street, Kolkata: Tucked between the city’s old universities, prominent food joints, heritage buildings and quintessential Calcutta bylanes, College Street, colloquially referred to as “boi-para,” is a mini paradise for booklovers who often stumble upon rare, antique gems. For two centuries, College Street has been a haven for readers, revolutionaries, academicians and foreign scholars. College Street has played host to India’s iconic protest movements, literary activists and liberation leaders. Today, literary masterpieces are not restricted to stalls alone. They have precariously spilled over on the streets having found shelter below schools, colleges and universities and coffee shops.
Moore Market, Chennai: Chennai’s 120-year old nook beaming with the musty smell of second-hand books, Moore proudly shelves bestsellers, encyclopaedias, anthologies and literary classics. Moore’s line-up of quaint bookstores welcomes students, researchers, professionals alike. Besides the enviable collection of fiction, the market is abundant with mint collections and academic or non-fiction volumes—an inexpensive alternative to purchasing online.
Daryaganj Book Market, Delhi: Once trademarked for Delhi’s prominent publishing houses along the stretch of Netaji Subhash Marg, the place gives you an ecstastic thrill of navigating through the bookshops to let the books find you. Located in Old Delhi, Daryaganj has sadly bode farewell to many booksellers. Nonetheless, the seller-buyer narrative stll blossoms in this place whose name literally translates to ‘a market across a river (Yamuna)’.
Appa Balwant Chowk, Pune: Popularly known as ABC Chowk, the wealth of popular titles found here is a huge source of relief to students and fiction lovers who travel across the city to reach ABC! Since the 1950s, when the place was amassing popularity, ABC has remained the go-to place for book exchange, purchase and sale. Dotted by generations old bookstores, ABC is a bustling corner with people wheezing past stationery stores, xeroex centres, school essentials and paper cutting and binding units. Smells like a paradise yet?
Avenue Road, Bangaluru: The dingy book street screams with novels, fairy-tales, engineering and medical textbooks, all shelved in colourful arrays. Bangaluru’s readers avail pretty generous discounts on the titles, some ranging from 40-60 percent. The entire stretch with its 300+ booksellers and plethora of paperback volumes legit makes the regulars giddy with happiness. What still pulls buyers is the amazing mix of genres at pocket-friendly prices.
