Mirror
Magazine 
|
||||
What
book is this? Hoping that the dream of having stacks and stacks of books could soon be a reality, we went in search of second hand bookshops in Colombo. The shops we stepped into were filled with all sorts of books and were a haven for book lovers. Taking a stroll down McCallum Road in Maradana we encountered a row of shops, which were literally overflowing with books… Wow!!! Browsing through the shops, we stopped at Priyankara Bookshop for a tête-à-tête with Mr. Dean (as he is known). In this line of work for the past 25 years, his bookshop sells second hand books, and a few new ones as well. He had books ranging from old paperbacks, to novels, to science fiction, to magazines from around the world, to all those thick academic volumes that are sometimes hard to find. You name it, he had it (at incredibly slashed prices!). And the clientele? “We get all age groups coming in, from five-year-olds to regulars who have been coming for years,” he said. Most of the time, the books are lent. “We charge for the entire book, but they can always return it to us,” in which case the shop will deduct a nominal sum and return the balance. A Nancy Drew ‘hire’ would cost as little as Rs. 100, an Arthur C. Clarke would cost Rs. 400, but Mr. Dean added that science fiction books are generally not lent. Among his collection of books are also a considerable amount of magazines, which are about four to five years old. There are the more recent editions available as well. He has an assortment of magazines ranging from the international Hello, Elle and Reader’s Digest to the local Explore Sri Lanka, Adoh! and Esteem. Browsing through the store you are guaranteed of finding many an old history book, some of which are hard to find anywhere else. “Most of the books are priced above Rs. 500, and with the really old books the prices go up to about Rs. 5000.” He said he had mostly books in English in his collection. Some bookstores were spacious, as they had room to move around, while others had piles of books spilling out of the store. The collection here included not only the usual books but also those volumes that might not be the easiest to find and the ones that are expensive to buy brand new. Be it Law, Computing, SAT, London O/L and A/L texts, if you are willing to shuffle through the piles they are all yours. Just make sure that you don’t topple the whole pile of books on yourself. “I’ve been coming here for the past five years,” said 32-year-old Mekala. “The magazine collections are awesome,” she smiles. Her six-year-old daughter accompanied her to the bookstores to pick up some Enid Blytons. Mekala admitted that time is scarce these days, so she doesn’t come as frequently as she once did. The shopkeepers echoed the same sentiment. “There is a decrease in reading among people these days, so the number of customers have reduced,” said one, adding that their customer base peaks during holidays. “Some still make regular visits to borrow books, and have even introduced the shops to friends and family,” added another. So how does this treasure trove happen? How do these stores get their stocks? “We have people coming and selling large numbers of old books to us,” said Dean, and we also purchase new books. Having walked through the McCullum Road stores we felt like experts on the matter of second hand books. Excited and equipped with a good understanding about how second hand bookstores worked, we thought we should look for more stores. We decided to head towards Fort. Among the many pavement hawkers selling the regular items on Bristol Street, stood a lone bookstall. Amidst the crowd, the bookstore’s keeper busied himself by sifting through copies for his customers. Even though at first glance the store looked a bit small it was stacked with many volumes. We could not get hold of the owner of the store so we did the next best thing… surprised a customer who was immersed in a book with a barrage of questions. “This is the first time I have been to this store,” said 21-year-old Nuwan who came across this bookstore accidentally. He was quite surprised to see the store, as you do not get many stores like this in Fort. “The only other store is a short distance away down Hospital Street,” he said. We headed towards Galle Road not wanting our Treasure Hunt falling short. Down Galle Road there are a few booksellers along the pavement opposite Majestic City selling a limited amount of books for those willing to stop and look. If you want something more than that head towards Wellawatte and you will find two bookstores somewhat close to each other on the sea side. Two
days could not have been better spent… a little bit of exploring,
almost toppling piles of books and finding those much sought after
books. Our ‘book hunt’ was divine… we could actually
have almost any book we wanted for such a small price! |
||||
Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
Owning
piles and piles of books to read when-ever we felt like it has always
been a distant dream, but considering the fact that our finances
are limited and books do not come cheap, the dream has always remained
at that. That was before we discovered the treasure trove of the
second hand bookshop. 