Crossword (Begumpet)

Crossword is one of the nicest places in the city to shop for books. Primarily because it's located next to the perfumes section in Shoppers' Stop. Big points for that, people. And also for the fact that this is perhaps the only bookstore in town that officially allows you to use it as a library, too. Yes, you can just sit there and read without having to buy anything. Works best with Asterix.

We have Indian fiction with Vikram Seth, Salman Rushdie and Amitava Ghosh, and others like Jeffery Archer, Stephen King, James Patterson, Anne Rice, Dean Koontz, Sidney Sheldon... basically all the popular fiction writers.

If you're tired of the regular fiction, try some sci-fi. For that matter you could even try astrology or the occult. And if you're stars ain't orbiting the right body, you might want to check out the travel section. With its various reference books telling you what to wear in the Bahamas (which, in fact, is not a lot).

Then there's the humor section stocked with Calvin And Hobbes and some other stuff that's supposed to make you laugh; you know, the joke books, the party joke books, the after-party joke books and the other non-party related joke books.

Having trouble managing the business of browsing the store? Never fear, the business and management section will tell you how to manage the money you have to buy the stuff you don't need to impress the people you don't know. Feeling a little philosophical about the concept of eleven men chasing a rolling piece of wood? Head to the dictionary section and look up the medical term for people like you.

There's enough for the budding philosophers and sportspeople too. The store also has a neat collection of children's classics and encyclopedias. And if you want to know the whodunnit and whydunnit, you can creep into the crime and mystery section.

Since the education system and every other form of ordered system seems to be failing, we have a whole section dedicated to helping yourself; a category aimed at making you more of a man or woman. If you're not sure which one you're classified under, you can get help with that too. Also there's enough to chew on in the food and wine section.

And if the whole point of going to a bookstore is to just flip through, you have the magazine section. All the well-known magazines are on display, thronged by drooling men slathering the covers of Vogue and Cosmo. The business and computer mags are also worth a second look.

There's no bargaining with the price tags on the covers, unlike at places like Akshara or even Odyssey, and it can get a little steep. How steep? It might be worth your while to dig deep holes in your pockets and see if you can stuff a few books in there and get away with it. Kidding, kidding.