chitra

In the second part of my Namma Bengaluru series, I will be taking you on a book trail around Bangalore. This is one of my favorite pastimes. And Bangalore has quite a few treasure houses for book lovers.

I will start with the most loved bookstore in Bangalore – The Premier Book Shop. It was started in 1971 and is known for its collection. They offer great discounts too. Book shopping in Premier is like a treasure hunt. At any given time, there are books lined up almost to the ceiling and you will find books, layer after layer. Negotiating your way around the store is quite an art! So when you finally find your book, it is no less than finding treasure and I am sure you would have found many more interesting books in the process. The less adventurous always have the option of taking help from the friendly staff or Mr. Shanbag, the owner of Premier, who can find you your book in a jiffy!! It is such a pleasure to shop or just browse there. For those of you who have been there, you know what I am talking about, and the others, plan a trip soon!

My next stop is another one of my favorites. Tucked away in the side lanes of Brigade road is this fabulous bookstore – The Select Book House. You can spend hours browsing through the books. Some of them are collector’s items. If you are lucky, you may even find the first edition of your favorite book. Last year’s Select stall at Palace grounds book exhibition also had prints of some beautiful paintings of Stubbs, Renoir etc.

Blossom bookshop on Church Street is relatively new and has an impressive collection of both new and used books. One thing that strikes you about this place is that it is very well organized. They had a great collection at last year’s book exhibition. And offered at great prices too. “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde” cost me 150 bucks, which I thought was a good deal.

There is no dearth of bookshops in South Bangalore. Nagasri is a well-known shop in Jayanagar 4th block. This is a one-stop shop for non-fiction and fiction for all ages. They almost always have the latest edition of preparatory books for all competitive exams. Being a regular at Nagasri, I particularly enjoy browsing through the children’s books, non-fiction and also their good selection of Kannada books.

This is just the beginning. Here are a few more well-known stores in Bangalore - Gangaram’s and Higginbothams on MG Road, Crossword on Residency Road, Strand in Manipal Center, Landmark in Forum Mall, and Prism in Jayanagar. And don’t forget the book exhibitions, most famous being the Annual Strand Book Sale and the Palace Grounds Book Exhibition.

Happy Reading!