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`Pages': A feast for the mind

Over 50,000 titles welcome you to the `biggest book shop in AP'

PHOTO: K.R. DEEPAK

BURY YOURSELF IN BOOKS A boy glancing through the pages at the book shop.

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body

---Joseph Addison

Days and even months may be spent flipping through the `Pages', at your own pace, as you try to draw from the ocean of knowledge on display.

Over 50,000 titles in countless categories and almost on every subject under the sun welcome you to the spacious two-floor showroom billed as the "biggest bookstore in Andhra Pradesh" - `Pages'.

What's more? You can sip refreshing coffee, served on the floor, while having your fill of wisdom from the books. At the end of the day you can just walk away without even buying any books. There is no need to feel embarrassed as the owners say: "No questions asked".

Then what do the bookstore owners gain? After seeing and glancing through the pages of such a vast collection at least a small percentage of readers would buy books and their numbers are bound to multiply over a period of time.

"We are in the book business for a quarter century. We want to contribute in our own way to promote the withering book reading habit among youth. Visitors are our teachers and their tastes and preferences act as our guide in improving our collection further," says Anil Nevatia of Pages.

The shelves are labelled and the books are arranged subject-wise. Those displaying inter-connected subjects are grouped at one place for the convenience of readers. There are over 300 display shelves on the two floors.

The ground floor houses general books, reference books, novels, comics, books on travel and tourism, psychology, biographies, autobiographies, imported magazines on different subjects...

Apart from this, the ground floor also displays video and audio CD s, audio books through which one could hear the entire content of a book through an audio player, different editions of Da Vinci Code, an Illustrated Screenplay (book) of pictures from the film, Superman collection...

There is a large collection of about 5,000 books on computers. Rare imported books like `Ancient Greece ... Revealed' in see through pages and encyclopaedias are another attraction for bookworms.

"Recently one school purchased encyclopaedias worth Rs.40,000 to be given away as gifts to its students and teachers," he says.

Incidentally, a book on Annamaya sankeertanas, "Flowers at His feet", written by Pappu Venugopala Rao was released at Pages by G.R.K. Prasad, secretary general of the Roller Skating Federation of India. The first purchaser was K.S. Anand, principal of the Zinc Smelter High School.

"We are happy that book lovers from neighbouring cities and towns as also those from other States are visiting our bookstore. Parents of students from Bihar and Assam pursuing various courses in the city are coming to see our showroom," he says with a sense of pride.

The first floor houses children's books, gift articles and toys. When kids are around selecting the books of their choice, can their mothers be far away? Therefore, books for women like those on cookery, stitching and personality development have all been stacked in the same floor for the convenience of mothers.

In the unlikely case that you do not find the book you are looking for, simply a form giving details of the book, your name, address, telephone and mobile number and the friendly staff led by the bookstore manager Srinivas would get back to you in a couple of days.

"We coordinate with suppliers and get the required book within a reasonable time and inform our customer immediately. If there is any delay in procuring the book, we keep our customer informed about the progress of their request," says Mr. Nevatia.

"We have plans to introduce various activities to promote the book reading habit among people. The proposals include reading sessions, author visits and literary activities every month. Events like Oxford Week and Cambridge Week would be celebrated during which a large collection of the respective publishers would be specially displayed. There would be customer loyalty programmes like points on purchases. Regular visitors could earn points and redeem them for books of their choice," he adds.

B. MADHU GOPAL

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