Authors, bibliophiles revel in ‘BooksHopping’

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Authors and book lovers descended on Church Street this weekend for the first-of-its-kind ‘BooksHopping’ launched by the bookstore owners. It was a treat for readers as they got to interact with some of the best city-based authors right in the middle of their favourites bookshops, such as Blossoms, Bookworm, Higginbothoms and Select.
The theme for Sunday was the ‘bookstores of the past, the present, and the future’. A lot of writers reminisced about bookstores that had impacted them in the past.  
Zac O’ Yeah, a Swedish author who has been living in Bengaluru for the last 30 years, remembered buying a book about Bangalore history from Select Book Shop. “When I asked the gentleman behind the book counter, not only did he know about it, he pulled it out from under the desk. It cost around Rs 6,000-7,000 on Amazon but I got it for Rs 1,500.”
Zac fell in love with every bookstore in Bangalore. “Around 15 years ago, whenever there was a book launch it would happen in one of these big chain stores in a mall. But with Flipkart and Amazon, these big chains have almost disappeared and only small and independent bookstores have survived. That’s because the people who run it care about the books and their loyal patrons keep coming back week after week,” he said.
Roshan Ali, the author of Ib’s Endless Search for Satisfaction, recalls how finding a copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses at Blossoms set him on the path to becoming an author. 
Another topic of discussion was ‘Bibliotherapy’,  the therapeutic value of reading and stories. Samhita Arni, the author of books such as Sita’s Ramayana and Missing Queen, recalled the time when she worked at a TV station in Afghanistan. “One of the shows I was writing got moved to Prime Time because it had made the programming director’s mother cry. I went to ask him for an explanation. He said his mother was a tough woman who had seen a lot – she had seen the Soviet Invasion, the Mujahideen, and the Taliban. She had lost family and faced many hardships but never cried once. But something about my show made her weep, it opened something in her. That’s when he knew the power of this show and why more people need it.”
Vasudhendra, a publisher of Kannada books, says “Only 5-10% are inclined towards reading. “There is a lot of talk of Smart Cities but what I believe is if you want to make a smart city, spend money on putting a state of the art bookstore or library in the town. It will automatically become a smart city,” he said.
Zac concluded the event by saying, “This is a historic day for bookstores in the city. At literary festivals, bookstores are usually excluded and only one seller is allowed to sell books. So this isn’t a literary festival, it is a bookstore festival.”