Life in Chennai has been kinda mixed emotions to me. As ritely said everything in the world as a material has its own pros & cons. (No no... This ain't a philosophical post...) The one thing I've loved bout Chennai since the week I came here is... LANDMARK. I'm not a savvy reader I used to be a few years ago, yet the love for the very smell of fresh printed paper is definitely something I fall for. I must admit that there ain't a single bookstore in Coimbatore as resourceful as the LANDMARK here. Btw, its branch in Coimbatore was closed before even I paid a visit there. How unfortunate. The only place I knew in Cbe to ge a good dose of books was the Odyssey n even there I had to go thro the pocess of ordering-waitin a lotta times. Is it cos ppl in Cbe don read books? I don think so, as i personally know a lotta book-maniacs myself. Now, lemme tel you what I saw on the other side of the coin. (Actually this incident triggered me to post this).
While I was in coimbatore a couple of months back, I came in touch with a fellow blogger in a social networking site. He claimed himself to be a budding author who has successfully had his first novel published. (Not revealing the book & the author for obvious reasons). He had posted a chapter of his book as a blogpost n I was impressed cos twas bout life in a college. (I've been really missin my college lately. I've been literally addicted to reading FPS n watchin Happy Days back to back). I really wanted to lay my hands on the book but had hard luck findin the book. After a week I moved to Chennai, was really astonished to see LANDMARK @ Citi Centre. Really believed to find the book there... But hard luck even there. :( The store personnel checked his DB just to find they had just a few copies left in their Nungambakkam outlet as the response to the book was not warm. (I must've been alertred by this, but unfortunately...). Twas raining quite heavily but I WANTED TO GET THE BOOK B4 THE STOCK GETS OVER. (I rather misunderstood tthe personnel on the reason of the book's unavailability, overlooking the WARMTH in his answer). I reached the place but the personnel in Nungambakkam branch too had difficulty in tracing the book 4 me in the store. Thou his sys told there were 2 copies of the book available we had a tough time trackin the hard. After of almost an hour of search, when I was just 'bout to leave luck found the book. (Yeah luck found the book... literally... Cos t woodn't 've had any takers else). I was kinda taken aback by seeing the book. Twas very small, like a one i could complete in 'bout 2 hours n was priced as almost twice as wat I wood pay for a book of tat quantity. (Goodness. I'm deliberately not bringing the Quality parameter here).
Went home as a happy reader n I was done wid the book b4 supper. It is the worst book I've ever read n i did regret buyin it. Now I new wy I had hardtime finding the book in Cbe. (Mebbe, outlets in Cbe 've known the differentiation altogether). I was furious with the author himself as he had personally boasted bout his work to me wen we had a virtual chat. I caught him up in a networkin site few days l8r n directly asked him if I could get a refund. (Sth 've learnt recently from my Job. Lol). & know wat he replied???.... Din Abhishek be a big flop in his first film n years l8r, a hit now? 'll too mould myself into a better author in my upcoming (I wonder...) books... I din know whether to laugh or cry with such a reply. Lol. This seemed more interesting to me than the book, as the book itself was completely illogical without a plot altogether. From then 've been choosing books from a different perspective. Givin t a second thot wen there is very less stock. Lol. I must also mention tat I got to raed a few good books after tis incident. Watever! The reader in me wont be killed!
Happy reading!
P.S.:
1. Waitin to read Krish n Ananya's story soon. Hurry up Chetan. You've changed the readin habit of Indian youth.
2. Unable to decide if I should pre-book The Lost Symbol (Almost 700 bucks) or wait a week longer for the pirated print.
3. How many of yu noted that the subject matter irrelevant to the post has been blurred out in the pic bove??? :p
