Six bookstores in Mumbai worth visiting

I wander through aisles,
Between rows upon rows
Of books—covers and spines—
That beckon me
To take them home and
Put them on my shelves—
Soldiers standing to attention.
 
I feel for them, and thus,
I fill my cart with books—
Their fantastic stories,
Their whispers and their dreams.
I buy them all, from cover to cover.
I tell myself, "I'll read them someday,"
But honestly? I just like the display.
 
I penned this verse on an impulse. Books tend to stir my poetic imagination. But so do new bookstores and secondhand bookshops.

Whenever I visit places in Mumbai or travel to another city, or even country, the first thing I seek out is a bookstore. It doesn't matter if it's new, secondhand or a thrift store as long as it's a place selling books where I can spend a couple of hours browsing quietly, in solitude. Books, and especially comic-books, bring me joy.

Sometimes, these literary excursions make me dream of owning my own bookstore. But that doesn't stop me from exploring other people's bookstore dreams. Thankfully, Mumbai is home to many bookshops—complete with libraries, reading spaces, book launches, author signings, and cosy cafés. You just have to know where and when to look.

I explore some of Mumbai's popular bookshops and libraries, where you can lose yourself among books and the stories they hold.

Kitab Khana

Kitab Khana, which means House of Books, is located near the historic Flora Fountain or Hutatma Chowk (Martyrs' Square) in the heart of South Mumbai. I make it a point to visit this bookstore whenever I'm in that part of town. Kitab Khana has an old-world charm, which isn't surprising considering it's housed in a 150-year-old colonial-era building with high ceilings, wooden decor and Corinthian columns. The store has a vast collection of books spanning various genres, including titles in Indian languages. At the back, there's a lovely café where you can have a beverage and a snack while reading a book.

Granth

Mumbai-based Granth, which translates to Scripture, is a haven for book lovers with an in-store café. Nestled in the western suburb of Juhu, not far from the namesake beach, Granth offers a well-curated selection of fiction and nonfiction books, including coffee table, management and self-help. The store's contemporary design, well-lit interiors and reading corners amplify the joy of browsing and buying books. Granth also has two other outlets: one at JW Marriott in Juhu and another at the Taj Santacruz Hotel near Mumbai Airport.

Title Waves

Making waves in the western suburb of Bandra is Title Waves, one of the largest bookstores in Mumbai. Touted as a boutique bookstore, Title Waves is aesthetically pleasing, which makes browsing its collection of multi-genre books more enjoyable. The store also hosts literary events, book launches and author interactions, which is inspiring for both readers and wannabe writers. Title Waves is located near two popular shopping plazas, Linking Road and Elco Market, making it convenient for book lovers and shoppers to explore all three places in a single visit.

Leaping Windows

Leaping Windows at Versova has been on my wish-ever since I heard that it's a café and comics library, and a pretty unique one at that. Considering that I have been reading and collecting comic-books since childhood, it's a shame I haven't visited the place yet. I believe the library, located in the basement, has an impressive collection of comic-books and graphic novels, including Marvel and DC, indie comics, and even international titles like Manga. Comic strips apparently leap out at you from the walls of Leaping Windows, and you can pay a nominal charge to enjoy your favourite comic-books in the reading room. The place also organises comics-related events, workshops and art exhibitions.

The Book House

 

My grandfather, my dad and his brothers, and later my wife and I, have all frequented The Book House over the past fifty-odd years. Located at the entrance to an old building just off King's Circle in the heart of the city, it's one of Mumbai's oldest bookshops. What it lacks in distinction, it more than makes up for with an extensive collection of secondhand books, including some rare and out-of-print titles. The Book House, now run by a soft-spoken gentleman with a keen knowledge of his craft, caters to fiction and nonfiction readers, as well as college students. Be prepared to sift through stacks of books spilling onto the footpath—they might just hold the title you're looking for or even surprise you with an unexpected one.

Trilogy Curated Bookshop & Library

This is another bookstore I haven't been to yet, but I'm eager to visit the place in Bandra as much for its books as for its fascinating story. Trilogy Curated Bookshop & Library was born out of "a consultancy of libraries," which sounds like a quirky title of a book or movie. The founding duo began by setting up and maintaining libraries, starting with a collection of Indian wildlife books for a lodge in Rajasthan. This experience led them to open the first Trilogy library and bookshop at Lower Parel, central Mumbai, which later relocated to Bandra. "We called it Trilogy, the word symbolises a coming together of the reader, the writer and the book," they explain on their website. True to its name, the bookstore offers readers and writers a sanctuary of curated books in both its library and bookshop. It also holds literary events, workshops and talks, and collaborates with organisations to create a thriving community of readers and writers.

These are by no means the only bookstores in Mumbai. I'm sure I've missed several tucked away in quiet corners across the city. Maybe I'll discover and write about them next time.

© Pocketful of Happiness

Book Review: The Best Laid Plans by Sidney Sheldon

"Everybody's got a little skeleton buried somewhere. All you have to do is dig it up, and you'll be surprised how glad they'll be to help you with whatever you need."

Sidney Sheldon was one of the many authors I read back in college during the eighties. 

In those days, Sheldon—along with the likes of Frederick Forsyth, Jack Higgins, Lawrence Sanders, Jeffrey Archer, Dick Francis, Alistair MacLean, Arthur Hailey, Len Deighton, Ken Follett, Desmond Bagley, Wilbur Smith, and even Harold Robbins and Irving Wallace—was known as a bestselling author.

I suppose they were known as bestselling authors not only because they were prolific, but also because their novels were often racy and regularly topped fiction charts, sold in the millions, and achieved mass-market success—I'd find their paperbacks everywhere, from bookstores to railway stations, and from footpath bookstalls to private circulating libraries. They had a certain global appeal. Many of their books were also adapted for the screen.

For the past forty years, I've been reading a handful of their novels every year, never quite sure if they hold up as well as they did back then. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't.

Most recently, I read The Best Laid Plans (1997) and quite enjoyed it; although, I found the ending rather abrupt and anticlimactic. It left me somewhat disappointed. There, I've given the game away already!

Still, The Best Laid Plans is a fast-paced political thriller that, for some reason, reminded me of Gore Vidal's 1967 novel Washington, D.C. Perhaps it's because both novels are about political morality, or more precisely, the lack of it. Power-hungry men willing to do whatever it takes to reach the highest office in the land.

Set in Lexington, Kentucky, The Best Laid Plans follows the lives of Leslie Stewart, a young, smart and ambitious PR executive, and Oliver Russell, a charismatic lawyer and down-on-his-luck political aspirant. Oliver hires Leslie's agency to revive his career and improve his chances of becoming governor of Kentucky. She is put in charge of his campaign, and predictably, the two fall in love and plan to marry.

That is, until Oliver dumps her just days before the wedding to marry the daughter of Senator Todd Davis, a political kingmaker whose influence and wealth help him win the Kentucky gubernatorial race. Davis then helps his son-in-law win the presidency as well, except for the fact that the senator has a secret agenda of his own—he intends to call the shots from the Oval Office.

Leslie is heartbroken, but not done with Oliver. She vows to destroy him. She marries a middle-aged business tycoon and philanthropist, originally from Kentucky but settled in Arizona. Leslie transforms her husband's local newspaper into a powerful media empire, and uses it to bring Oliver down.

Does she succeed? Well, you'll have to read the book, which, by the way, also has subplots involving mysterious deaths linked to the drug Ecstasy, corruption, personal vendetta and media spin, all of which trace back to Oliver's administration and cover-ups.

The Best Laid Plans is classic Sidney Sheldon with its formula of power, betrayal and revenge, as we saw in his best-known work The Other Side of Midnight. The writing is crisp, the chapters short, there is plenty of dialogue, and just the right amount of suspense. All of this makes it entertaining, though there's not much depth to the primary characters and the plot feels a bit rushed toward the end.

In sum, a decent page-turner for the weekend.

Book Review: A Wanted Man by Lee Child

"Some old guy once said the meaning of life is that it ends. Which was inescapably true. No one lives forever."

 

I know more about Jack Reacher from the Tom Cruise and Alan Ritchson movies and series than from Lee Child's novels, having read only Killing Floor, the first in the series.

In keeping with the trend, I was prompted to read the 17th instalment, A Wanted Man, after watching Season 3 on Prime, which is based on Child's seventh book, Persuader.

Reacher's unintended exploits—or troubles, depending on how you see it—begin when he hitches a ride on a deserted highway to Nebraska with two men and a woman, ostensibly headed for Chicago. He's en route to Virginia to meet a girl. But once in the car, the highly decorated ex-military cop quickly senses something's off: the men appear friendly, making small talk, yet oddly evasive; the woman seems scared; and the route doesn't quite add up. His suspicion is confirmed when the woman, seated in the back, manages to warn him with a series of coded eye blinks through the rear-view mirror. Saying more would ruin the suspense for those who haven't read the book. 

Elsewhere, a Kansas sheriff is investigating the murder of a US trade attaché, a cover for a CIA station chief. The body, found at a nearby diner, is central to the plot of A Wanted Man.

Over the next forty-eight hours, Reacher finds himself in the middle of a dangerous situation that unfolds with each chapter. It involves conspiracy theories, an undercover operation, disappearing witnesses, and a potential terror plot with links to both domestic and Middle Eastern, likely Syrian, terrorists. Reacher teams up with Julia Sorenson, a sharp and initially reluctant FBI special agent from the Omaha field office, who's investigating the diplomat's murder. The plot spirals into a national security issue, pulling in FBI agents from other field offices, the State Department and the CIA.

A Wanted Man is a slow-building thriller that moves at a steady pace—a departure, I assume, from many of the other Reacher novels and their screen adaptations. Reacher spends considerable time thinking and analysing each situation before making his move. For example, he's admirably restrained as the two men drive for hours—across state lines, through Nebraska, Kansas and Ohio—without quite reaching their destination. He resists the urge to confront them, choosing instead to bide his time so he can get to the bottom of who they are and what they're actually up to. Here, Lee Child captures the tension of the seemingly endless road trip really well.

The ending is trademark Reacher, though. He storms in, guns blazing, for a high-stakes showdown inside an abandoned, blast-proof military installation—likened to a capsized battleship—in the middle of nowhere. It's so massive that the author details its secretive interior over several pages. I had trouble picturing it in my head.

I was so impressed with Lee Child's writing in Killing Floor—precise, with clipped sentences—that I promised myself I'd read more of his books. In A Wanted Man, I especially liked how Child effortlessly repeats certain words and phrases across consecutive sentences within the same paragraph. I don't recall coming across that style in anything else I've read. Hopefully, A Wanted Man will spur me to pick up more of his novels.