Books are relatively cheap in India. And believe me, I've become addicted to them. Crosswords in the Kemp Corner Mumbai, is my favorite bookstore, though it's quite a distant from the Hyatt Regency Hotel. But they have a wide range of book collections. Well, of course, it's not as complete as, say, WH Smith or Waterstone in UK, let alone Amazon.com, but the prices are amazingly cheaper than any other places in the world. Another thing is that you can find any paperbacks in this subcontinent way before they publish them somewhere else. It's a good feeling when you are reading John Grisham paperback at Dubai airport while a person sitting opposite to you envies you and wonders where on earth I bought that paperback!
As soon as I drop my stuffs in the hotel room, I instantly hit the road and headed to the Crosswords (Well, Tekson in Delhi is also a good option.) Now, it has become my habit.
Yesterday, I did book shopping like there's no tomorrow. Not entirely for myself, of course. Dita, Anton and Wingky asked me to buy Jamie Oliver's and some other cooking books which are, darn, thick and heavy! I bought 3 copies of Jack Welch's Winning as the gifts. And some other books. In the end, I ended up buying 19 books altogether! Though the store manager could not give me some discounts, yet I managed to persuade him to hand me a 500 Rupees voucher. Enough to exchange with 1 or 2 books.
They also recommended a couple of good books which I may buy later (hopefully I'll be back again.) This indicates that even their staff read. Well, at least, they were quite fluent when I 'examined' their knowledge about the contents of the books.
I often think if Indians can run such a good book business, why can't Indonesians? Our population is also huge. Yet, I've never seen a good store with imported books and reasonable prices. I've been to Aksara in Kemang. Good concept. Bookstore and cafe. Still, the prices of textbooks are just too much for young people or students. Not sure if they have a good collection though. But I mean, if we can make some sorts of agreements with the foreign distributors like the Indians do, we could definitely get cheaper prices.
Yet, of course, things are getting more complicated when it comes to the piracy issue. *Sigh* This issue is inevitably the biggest turn-off for the foreigners to do any IP business with Indonesia. I am not trying to emerge such a classic discussion here, because I can assure you at the end we'll end up pointing our fingers to the system and our Government.
The situation can be incondusive. But it cannot be wrong to keep such a dream. A dream that I have been dreaming for years. In that dream I will run a (chain of) cozy bookstore(s) with coffee shops and reasonable prices for the students and young. Let books remain one of the best teachers for everyone.
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