The Bookpoint

The most popular bookstore aisle is conspicuous at The Bookpoint by its absence. Unlike most other places, this demure little store sitting in a less raucous street of Basheerbagh doesn't have much by way of fiction, but it makes up for it by stocking up on the other genres.

The history section here has a great series of books called the Heinmann Advanced History, which features books on the Cold War, Mussolini and Italy, Lenin and the Russian Revolution, and other collaborations showcasing pivotal points in history.

The children's section has a great many books by Indian writers like Arup Kumar Datta, and books like the Jataka and the Panchatantra tales. Also present is a collection of illustrated classics by Baronet Books featuring eternal favorites like Heidi, Ivanhoe, Wind In The Willows and The Wizard Of Oz. In retrospect, the best books for the young readers have to be the Easy Classics series which feature works by Graham Greene, John Steinback, Mary Shelly and Somerset Maugham, to name a few. This series offers a simplified version of their works aimed at children of about 13 years.

The psychology section has a great many books, mostly spin-offs from earlier popular psychoanalysis-based books. For example, we have the "Why Men Lie And Women Cry" to "Why Men Don't Listen" series of books by Allan and Barbara Pease. The management and self-improvement sections are also littered with such frivolity. Case in point - Promod Batra's "Cows Don't Give Milk... It Has To Contracted Drop By Drop". The philosophy section features works ranging from the writings of, on and by Osho, to umpteen numbers of books on Greek philosophy.

The science fiction section has a decent collection of books by the regulars - namely, Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Roger Penrose and Isaac Asimov. The cookery filing has many Sanjeev Kapoors smiling down at you. And then there is the encyclopedia section with the new and complete edition of the Tell Me Why series.

The Bookpoint has an amazing collection of books by Indian writers - Amitava Gosh, Arun Joshi, Shashi Tharoor, Tagore, Anita Desai, Taslima Nasrin and V S Naipaul to name more than a few. Naipaul's celebrated A House For Mr. Biswas, along with a few hundred copies of Tagore's Gitanjali, fill the shelves. They are kept company by the classics section, which is home to Oscar Wilde, Tolstoy, Lawrence Goethe, and Chekhov, along with his plays.

The dictionary section engages your attention instantly, and has some real good ones like the Dictionary Of Dreams and another one on saints.

The store has about four to five sales in a year, where they feature a particular publisher like Oxford, and give a discount of 10% on all books. It also happens to be the suppliers of general reading books to many major schools in the twin cities.