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Journalism of Courage
On FC Road, which bustles with the latest trends in fashion and lifestyle through the hours, there is a cosy bookshop where the clock appears to have stopped. You can find Book World if you are looking for it or you might stumble upon it like an adventure you didn’t expect.
Book World cannot be seen from the road. You have to take the steps right down to the basement — and open yourself to the magic of stories. Unlike chain stores packed with merchandise, the focus here is on the written word. The poetry of Charles Bukowski might greet you as you enter and you will encounter Nobel laureates Han Kang and Annie Ernaux, as well as RK Laxman, Jhumpa Lahiri and Richard Osman while there.
Readers walk around the shelves, picking up and reading blurbs and pages before deciding just as they used to do before books went digital. As if busting a myth about reducing the appeal of printed books among the youth, Book World is almost always packed with students and young adults.
“After Covid, people shifted to reading print, possibly because they are tired of screens. We are surrounded by colleges and young people come looking for fiction or works of philosophy,” says Narendra Chandan, founder of the store. His business model is to focus on the reader and provide classics, literary works and even rare titles for the discerning reader.
The story of Book World starts with a raddi shop that was run by Chandan’s father, Dharsi Chandan, on FC Road. As a young man, Chandan saw that second-hand magazines and books were in demand among readers. He converted that store into a bookstore almost 45 years ago.
“Book World opened at its present location in 1996. During that time, Pune bookstores had a counter where people could ask for a title and shop assistants would hand these over. Book World decided to bring people into the store so that they could go around and pick up books to buy,” says Chandan.
He also put variety and quality over quantity, so that a cerebral work is given a better display than a trending bestseller. A number of out-of-print books are also painstakingly sourced and kept for readers. Book World also has a policy of maintaining a well-stocked old books section, which is a hit with student readers on a budget.
E-commerce is a major challenge for standalone, old-school bookstores such as Book World. Online shopping has created a buying behaviour in which readers come across a title at a store, check the price online, where discounts are higher, and prefer to buy online than from a store. The charming book-buying experience at Book World landed the bookstore in difficult times around 2014. Chandan decided to clear the stock and pull down the shutters. Readers, however, opposed this move and encouraged Chandan to stay afloat.
Covid came with a twist in the tale and, though many small businesses sank, books saw rising demand. Book World was constantly getting calls and deliveries were going out across the city. “After that, people just kept coming to the store,” says Chandan.
Jugal Chandan, the son of the owner, is now planning the next chapters of the store. “There are challenges but we will always keep a good collection of books, including titles that you might not get elsewhere,” he says.
