1 Up
Crossword opened yet another store in Pune - supposedly, their largest, and on the premises of the International Convention Centre premises on Senapati Bapat Road, the construction of which heralded the archaeological excavation processes in the city a couple of years ago. I tend to be slightly critical of such mini-behemoth bookstores, but one must say that the store is actually quite inviting - the softbacked chairs next to the massive glass walls with a lack of congestion (so far) that bedevils some of their other stores in the city made it a happy experience for the first-timer.The usual Crossword problems persist though: the lesser-known books are hard to find, the vcds are stacked back-to-back in the most sub-optimal manner that actually forces you to noisily flip through them causing little avalanches that get the security guys dogging my steps (or so I thought!). The "Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" were spotted in the "Biography" section. Thankfully, this store spells "VCDs" without causing the Apostrophe Protection Society too much colonic distress unlike the Aundh one which had the ironic sight of "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" parked close to the shelves with the heading "VCD's".
The music and movies sections are on the first floor. Question: aren't stores more disability-friendly these days? This one definitely isn't, with its stairs. Bought a couple of books that have been on my to-buy list for a long while now: Ramachandran and Blakeslee's "Phantoms in the Brain" and Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene". Was scared to ask if "Godel, Escher, Bach" was out of stock for fear that it may have been filed under "Religion and Philosophy", but finally mustered up the courage and mercifully found out it was merely unavailable. I wish Crossword would get its employees to make a simple, but potentially profitable enquiry of "could we order it for you?" or "we could let you know when it comes in" that would forestall me taking my business elsewhere.
By the way, am I just a cheap, miserly person or are books overpriced on an average? Hope to soon visit the new Landmark in Bombay, while noticing that Odyssey has begun to advertise on TV. But most importantly, the long pending visit to Pathfinder.
4 comments:
You actually buy books at Crossword!! I thought Crossword was a place where you checked the books out and then bought them at a discount store. Who the hell wants to pay for ambience ? (or whatever is the excuse Crossword gives for its books being overpriced).
VCD's next to Lynn Truss. That is rich! Can you take a picture and send it to me?
Yes, books are overpriced in India. Take the example of One Night @ CC, which was sold profitably for a hundred bucks. But look at most penguins and books of roughly the same size - they're well above 200 bucks.
Me looking forward to the coming electronic book market - where everyone carries ebook readers and downloads books onto them for cheap, to break this whole business model.
R: It seems rather apt that you bought the Selfish Gene on its 30th anniversary. A nice review of the book and Richard Dawkins's impact appeared in Nature last week (11th May, 2006). Which reminds me to finish reading The Ancestor's Tale and read his best book (according to the reviewer) - The Extended Phenotype.
Hirak, I haven't seen "Phantoms in the Brain" in any place before this despite looking for a long time, plus had a couple of vouchers to expend.
Thanks for the "Selfish Gene" link. Had "The blind watchmaker" before this - halfway through it - and by rich coincidence, picked up a collection of Dawkins essays called "The Devil's Chaplain" from BCL.
Post a Comment