Death of a bookstore: Reading in the time of the Kindle – Hindustan Times

When Ajitvikram Singh closes Facts & amp; Fiction, Delhi’s best independent book store next month, he will be remembered, most of all, for trying to sustain a business with high taste. In his shop, you did not meet the entire book market but handpicked works of literary fiction, history and popular culture. Singh’s intimacy with books is real; his interaction with customers is polite enough but aristocratic. Unless you are a regular, you get no discount.

“Readers need to decide Whether they want to go to a bookshop or a wholesaler,” says Singh who, like anyone interested in the survival of book stores in the times of online book shopping and e-readers like Kindle is still trying to crack the model That will keep running indie stores. (Spell & amp; Bound, another standalone bookstore in SDA Market, is also shutting shop next month.)

“Corporate publishing houses, more than the Internet, have changed the game. They pushed up the price of books . Also, Their attention only on the big sellers affected sales and production values. Penguin, for example, seems only interested in pushing Amitav Ghosh. ”

Add to That, the changing culture of reading and you are looking at the beginning of the end of the world – from a bookseller’s point of view. “What is the Google experience fundamentally about?” asks Singh. “It’s about getting something for nothing, for free. You can not make Bookshops about discounts rather than books.”

F & amp; F’s closure has lessons for other stores Their rooms even when the model is different. MirzaBaig of the Midlands, Whose shop is high on volumes (here you can bet it 20 copies of everything) and the ‘personal touch’ That says he started the tradition of selling cheap books in Delhi.

This is his he is Mister customers 20%. “Not just 20% discount; at times, he even takes back books if we do not like them,” says one of his customers.

Rajni Malhotra says being available at various levels – as publisher, literary agent and a bookseller – has worked for Bahrisons. Niche is also a model That is serving a standalone Bookshops. Prime examples of this are the National School of Drama bookstore and the May Day Bookshop.

Theatreperson Sudhanva Deshpande, who runs May Day Says That in an age when everything is easily available on the internet, and to provide your bookstore has a reason for it to be on customers’ agenda. “When people come to our store, they know we do not keep what the average store does. We also keep second-hand books.” he says. His effort to bring in the off-mainstream culture of the city has also kept the shop formless and in the thrum of the city’s conversations. And his favorite bookshop? “Fact & amp; Fiction’s one of them.”