My favourite bookstore – like for many others – is Strand Book Stall at Fort. The collection is simply amazing, and every time I go there, I find something to surprise me. Even though other bookshops are bigger, there is something about Strand which enables discovery. They almost seem to know what will sell. In that diverse mix is a book for every taste. Abhishek too has started liking Strand – after he discovered that they a few snakes and reptiles books! So, now for the last two Sundays, we have been going there as he samples the children’s section books and decides what to buy. The rule we have set is: no more than 1 book per visit.
South Mumbai also has a few other good bookshops. Crossword is quite literally a stone’s throw from my house at Kemp’s Corner, and Oxford, at Churchgate. I really want to like Crossword, but something about it holds me back. We do visit Crossword often, but mostly it is for Abhishek to add to his small cars collection. Oxford is much more of a rarity in terms of visits. On my visits to Taj, I also used to stop by Nalanda. I guess it will be sometime before that happens.
And then there’s Amazon.com — the bookshop which is in the neighbourhood of everyone! My use of Amazon is now two-fold — to buy fiction books to read on the Kindle, and order the newest titles in case someone is coming over from the US to Mumbai.
