The steel city needs more bookstores for fiction-lovers

Jamshedpur, Oct. 19: Bookworms in the steel city often have to wait for months before they can set their hands (read eyes) on the new best-sellers. While their metro counterparts can drop in at any one of the bookstores to browse through recent releases, the city book lovers have no option but to wait for the books or order them from outstation shops.

However, there is no dearth of textbooks. ?Though the city has an exhaustive collection of text and reference books, the fiction collection is poor. Except Wasava Singh?s shop and the selected collection at the Agarwal Book Store, there are hardly any shops, which cater to literature. However, in Mumbai and other metros there are many such stores where people can actually sit and browse the books before buying them,? said H.N. Ram, the subdivisional officer.

The bookstore owners, however, see it from a different perspective. ?We usually keep textbooks as they are the safest bet. There is no risk of any dead stock with school and college texts. Moreover, the market for fiction is not very large. It would be a bit risky to convert our shops into a bookstore catering to such a niche market,? said Mukhtyar Singh, partner of Wasava Singh.

?Only five per cent of our clients prefer fiction and classics. Our customers mainly comprise students,? said Bimal Agarwal, the proprietor of Agarwal Book Stores.

Technical books are a close second to school texts.

?We are an industrial city and most of our readers are technical people. Members of our SNTI library are usually the employees of any one of the industries dotting the city and they usually need technical books,? revealed H.N. Mishra, the head of information services, Tata Steel.

Even the Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI) fails to serve the bookworms.

?Students can hardly squeeze time out of their rigorous academic schedule to read classics and contemporary literature. We have the latest books related to management and industrial studies, but hardly any fiction and classics,? said Alex, in charge, XLRI library.

?Reading habits have fallen sharply due to the electronic media. But, if there can be so many cyber cafes around, why can?t there be more bookstores? A store like the Crosswords of Delhi and Mumbai, where one can sit and read before purchasing the books, might help popularise reading,? said Lalita Sareen, the principal of Jamshedpur Public School.