Beyond the gates of the World Book Fair, a parallel book market thrived

“We put up these shops every year during only this time,” said Rahul Kumar Yadav, 25, one of the sellers managing a pile of bestsellers priced between rupees 100 and 150. Funnily enough, despite the books being sold at a lower rate, people tried bargaining for an even lower rate. Yadav said that they only put up the stall after lunch. “We put up the stall after 2 pm. That’s when the crowd starts increasing on a working day,” he added, selling a copy of The Vegetarian by Han Kang. The books, he explained, were supplied by another seller. He shrugged when asked about quality. He was not interested in the debate.

Bookstagramable titles high in demand

The scene was chaotic. Prices were announced, disputed, renegotiated. Popular rom-com titles from Bookstagram, including works of Ana Huang, Ali Hazelwood, Emily Henry and Taylor Jenkins Reid, were to be found at each stall. The cover art and every detailing were eerily similar to the original works; it was only the paper quality that differed. A mother was observed haggling with another seller to lower the costs of the books her daughter was purchasing.

A pavement book stall outside the World Book Fair.

Teenagers make up a sizable portion of the crowd. After purchasing at the World Book Fair, Tanvi Dua, 18, and Rishika Arora, 18, who had paper bags printed with Bloomsbury and Penguin, stopped at the pavement booksellers to take a look. The attraction is simple. “The want for more books,” they said, almost in unison. They bought from here because of the price and because it allowed them to stay within budget, without worrying about spending their parents’ money. Each book, they said, cost around ₹130. Inside the fair, at the bigger publishers’ shops, that money might not have even bought a bookmark.

A few steps away, at another pavement stall, Khushi Sharma, 20, was flipping through a copy of The Cruel Prince by Holly Black, assessing the quality of the book. She revealed that she had read the book online but wanted a physical copy, as something tangible to keep. “I needed a copy as a memory,” she said. Buying it here, cheaply, helped her avoid the guilt that came with spending too much on books.

Quality, no bar

Yet even among eager buyers, there was no illusion about what they were purchasing. “The quality inside won’t be good,” one customer said plainly, pointing to uneven pages and faded print. But the compromise was accepted. To them, access mattered more than perfection.

Viral videos that had been circulated online from the last day of the World Book Fair, where crowds at some official book stalls descended into chaos, with visitors seen reaching, climbing shelves, and grabbing books amid surging footfalls, showed a similar pattern – a want for more books.

Books here were cheap, but the experience was anything but. The pavement told a story of demand, frustration, and a hunger for reading that sometimes spilled over into chaos.