Published By: Alfaraz Laique

Why Daryaganj & other book markets are dying

There is a saying that when you see books lying on the streets and shoes placed in a showroom, know what society needs the most. The decline in the culture of reading books and magazines has shutdown many markets for books and even Daryaganj is slowly losing its charm.

Gone are the days when there were crowd at book stalls. Now, you can see book stall owners selling things like clothes, tobacco, water, etc. along with books for their survival. Let’s talk about the reasons behind this fall.

Craze – It is a known fact that youth is no more interested in reading. Look around and you will notice that the current generation remains busy on their mobile phones as if they do not have a life outside their screens. There was a time when people used to buy books to make their journey easier but these days, even that trend has gone down. The habit of reading is depleting which is not a good sign as it only makes a person wiser. There are some book lovers who love to read both fiction and nonfiction but they are very few and these markets need more buyers to stay alive. You can see people buying things for no reason when they are available at a low price but unfortunately the same is not the case with books.

Online shopping –It is wrong to assume that nobody is reading books these days. If not many, there are some people in this young generation who are making an effort to expand their knowledge via books. However, the problem lies in the fact that many of them rely on online shopping for buying their books. Writers are releasing their books on platforms like Amazon these days and people buy directly from them. This makes it difficult for these markets to cope up with online shopping. These markets, however, have all kinds of books available and you can get even the signed copies sometimes. If you are a book lover, try buying books from these small vendors and you feel happy a lot happy.

Culture - The culture of reading has changed. Gone are the days when there were crowd around a book stall and people used to discuss their favorite writers. Believe it or not, the book stall owners used to have the most knowledge about the authors, their books and they were the best person to talk about books. The culture has changed a lot. People these days prefer e-books over paper books because they save time, the problem of carrying and the environment. One cannot deny the fact that e-books are good for the environment but they do not give the right feel to an old school book lover who likes to smell the pages of the book while reading.