Books, Ba-Ba-Boo-Ba-La-Books.

[sonataindica]

I hate Blossoms these days. Gone are the days when a visit to Blossoms meant a few hours of leisurely browsing through lanes and lanes of musty second-hand books waiting to be bought at throw-away prices. Sigh. Those were the days when I actually used to bring back mounds of good books from every Blossoms trip. Now I find that my meagre allowance

Comments

[tandavdancer]

What's with all the down with capitalism and power to the masses shouting? What good is it when the masses seem to be interested in Cubbon Park and so on? Mucho disappointed with Premier. And don't worry, Blossom still sells the cheapest books in Bangalore. You get Kurt Vonneguts and Carl Hiaasens for 100 bucks. The trick is to really, really hunt for it. Yeah, I didn't have a great time with the assistants either but oh well, how many knowledgeable ppl become bookshop assistants? maybe they'll learn with time. Landmark's help is, if anything, even worse. Even with a computer to help them out. I spent an hour listening to Premiers proprietor rant and rave and generally bitch about Blossom.
Maybe you were just having a bad day but the house of used books deserves better....

[sonataindica]

Maybe it's just that my taste has veered towards the expensive over the last few years. But Blossom is generally disappointing these days. Must try Aqeel, the guy who sits in front of the Shivajinagar Sreeraj Lassi Bar. Arul mentioned a massive list of books followed by Rs. 500 at the end in his blog the other day. And the shop Beatzo mentioned on MG Road is worth a check out too. By by by, new books are cheaper at Premier than at Blossom :)

[tandavdancer]

new books are cheaper at Premier than at Blossom?
don't agree. besides shopping at Premier is a harrowing experience. you expect to get shot if you decide to walk out empty-handed.

[sonataindica]

They are around 30 bucks cheaper. Verified it yesterday. If you buy a book without a coupon, there's also a percentage discount he grants.

[tandavdancer]

I guess it depends on the title. 'most all titles I checked out were cheaper in Blossom. Desmond Morris, e.g.

[silverreflects]

I generally prefer not to ask for help unless I am in an absloute hurry in which case I wouldn't have been buying a book in the first place :-) I prefer putting a thorough scan of the place & then making my selections depending on my budget. If the assistants try being a doormat or something I tell them to find some of these impossible books e.g. "Neuromancer" by William Gibson, "The Codebreakers" - David Kahn. After that they generally leave me alone - put it to good use at Blossoms last year :-)

In Landmark it is better to go yourself & supervise the typing in of your query in the comp - the help there can be relied upon to make spelling mistakes. I asked them for Kahn, they put David Khan(secularism, anyone?) & returned negative. Had to correct them, but no results even then :-(

[wtmewry]

To someone who comes from Ahmedabad, which lacks any decent bookshops anyway, Blossoms seems like paradise. Landmark is way to expensive for me. Btw, I don't know if you've ever shopped for books on Mumbai's streets (specifically near Churchgate)...

Apparently the book-sellers have been told to get lost because road side book selling doesn't gel with the image of Mumbai as a mega-city or something like that. Bummer.

[sonataindica]

I have tried Churchgate when I was a kid. Have bought stuff like Hardy Boys at Rs 2 apiece and the like. Have also tried Old Delhi's Daryaganj, which is an amazing place. Wanted to hit College Street in Kolkata this time but it was closed on a SUNDAY. That's a bummer now.

[sonataindica]

L.O.L.
The strategy of asking for impossible books works all the time. Most music shops frown on browsers, so I ask them for stuff like Kishori Amonkar singing Raag Darbari in Dhrupad style or Yngwie Malmsten live in Helsinki on Audio Cassette. That usually shuts them up:)

[safarial]

i ask for something that is even more vague...
who has heard of beatles covering metallica?

yup i asked for that to some idiot assitant and he actually went looking for it and after a good twenty minutes, he said, "sorry sir, it will come next week"

[tandavdancer]

there is a band called beatallica - they play beatles songs in metallica fashion -example - 'blackened in the ussr'. heh heh.

[safarial]

that is interesting...i wonder how love me do would sound when played like master of puppets...