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Good feed for bookworms
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What is special about Fountainhead sale, starting tomorrow, is that there is a big discount on new arrivals as well
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Fountainhead has upped its quality — Photo: K. Gopinathan
AT FIRST glance, the new Fountainhead looks like the old one. It's when you look closer that you see the small but significant changes. In one cosy corner, there's a table with six chairs to enable readers — children, in particular — to browse leisurely. The quality of titles now available in fiction and non-fiction are a few notches above what used to be on display earlier.
Perhaps, the most significant change is the store's enthusiastic new manager, Anil, who is bursting with ideas and plans for the bookshop, starting with a blow-out bargain book sale that begins tomorrow — 20 to 50 per cent off on books from December 19 to January 4. What is special about the sale is that this discount is not on old stock, but on all existing stock in the bookstore, plus new titles brought in from various sources — 20 to 30 per cent off on new titles and 40 to 50 per cent off on the remaining stock. Remember all those new hardcover and coffee table books you looked at longingly but had to put back because they were too pricey? Well, here's your chance to give them another think. You get anything from 30 to 50 per cent off on them. A quick, random look at what else is on sale reveals interesting surprises: 50 per cent off on nearly all the V.S. Naipauls, paperback best-sellers, pulp and genre stuff like mystery and science fiction. Best of all: big discounts on new non-fiction including performing arts, popular science, and religion. Forty per cent off, for instance, on an unauthorised biography of Tim Burton, a fabulous new collection of essays on Star Wars called A Galaxy Not So Far Away, Karen Armstrong's excellent primer on Islam, and the famous The Iowa Writer's Workshop Manual. "We want to make discounts and bargains a regular feature at Fountainhead," says Anil. "But most of all, we want to re-image the store as a booklover's bookshop." One of the treats he has in store for Bangalore's devoted readers is a book quiz. Children are welcome to come and browse or read to their heart's content. Ever since Anil took over, he has been keen on promoting children's literature. In the span of a few months, Fountainhead launched several reading activities (storytelling, for instance) for children in the store. Anil's previous experience was with GoodBooks, a children's activity centre in Chennai and a marketing and retail wing of Tulika, one of the best publishers of children's books in the country. Through the year, school and college students can look forward to special prices on their book purchases. There's a dial a book facility for customer's within a five km. radius. Remaindered books — where books can be had for a song — will soon be another new feature of the store. And for regular customers, the shop will offer 15 to 20 per cent off. Booklovers are encouraged to browse at the store and give their suggestions. A recent suggestion made by students of literature, that Fountainhead will follow up on, is to increase shelf space for contemporary fiction and poetry. Fountainhead is also fast becoming the best bookstore for international magazines. Apart from Premiere, Rolling Stone, Sight and Sound, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, and GQ, you'll find rare, specialised magazines such as Q, Movieline, Talk, Interview, and DVD Review. "Magazines and books, including audio books, on management has been our strength," says Anil. "But we will now concentrate on expanding our literature, stationary and children's section." Fountainhead can be contacted on 2229759 / 2219777 / 36745583.
PRADEEP SEBASTIAN
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
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