Just when purists were giving up reading books as a dying art, along came a slew of online libraries that are encouraging people to read again. Dheera Majumder leafs through.
Remember the musty smell of old Classics and the over-used membership card to your library that was torn on the edges? Sounds like nostalgia. The smell these days is more new-age and the only thing that’s overused is the left click of a mouse.
As if in reply to this whole new breed of net generations is the birth of libraries that deliver ‘real’ books with just a click of the mouse. The idea of online libraries is simple – log on, register, choose a plan, place an order and have them delivered to you. When you’re done, they will be replaced with a new set of books you wanted to read.
Nidhi Verma, founder of Bookmeabook.com, deconstructs the process. “Users can choose from a monthly to yearly plans to suit your pace of reading. So while some may choose for unlimited deliveries per month, there are families who opt for four books per month,” she says.
Get graphic
If you’re among the few who still fancy the world of Phantom comics or secretly read the adventures of Tintin, sign up with Leaping Windows. This online library is dedicated to graphic novel series like 100 Bullets, 30 Days of Night and popular Indian and international comics like Amar Chitra Katha and Archies.
Vernacular anyone?
For books in vernacular language, browse through Bookmeabook.com that offers classics like Amar Chitra Katha in Hindi. However, only 10 per cent of its total readership opts for the vernacular. Librarywala.com, which operates in Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru and Mysore, offers books in Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati, Kannada and Telegu. Hiten Turakhia, who started it, says that the popularity of vernacular books are limited to particular regions. Overall, books in Hindi are the least ordered, he adds.
Behind the scenes
Most online libraries are started by individuals who felt that brock-and-mortar libraries were fast disppearing. Twenty-five year old Arjun Kedia quit his regular job at Kotak Mahindra to start Readers’ Adda, that caters only to Mumbai’s western suburbs. Since its launch eight months ago, it has grown to 100 members.
Indiareads.com, on the other hand, was primarily started to spread the joys of reading to the lesser privileged individuals. Gunjan Veda, its CEO, says, “We deliver wherever the courier companies go. We want to make the bestsellers accessible to readers in secondary and tertiary cities as early as possible and not months after they appear in the market.”
Leafing through
These libraries have significantly helped to increase the accessibility of leisure-reading books, reviving the habit of reading itself. Even corporates are opting for these online library plans for their employees. Librarywala.com’s corporate clientele include Bayer India, Ashok Piramal Group and Deloitte India.
With so many virtual libraries mushrooming in India, each one of them is trying hard to become edgier and faster, adding more books to their collection and offering customised plans. Some like Indiareads.com also offer book reviews by in-house writers and members. Others meanwhile are exploring the potential of audiobooks and e-books.
But while e-books come with several copyright issues, audiobooks are easier to add to their portfolio. Librarywala.com enjoys the first-mover advantage in this segment with the launch of its first set of audiobooks this May. The books range from fiction to management, children’s books and training videos. “We are also assessing potential of adding foreign language books to our collection,” Turakhia added.
They don’t see e-books as a threat. “Maybe in the metros, but a significant amount of the population cannot afford e-reading devices. Also, the dynamics of the Indian market will not allow physical book-reading to perish,” says Arti Jain who initiated the online library Friends of Books, adding, “Book-reading cannot be threatened by technology.”
Artists and Games
July 20, 2011
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