We’ve reached an era where we’re losing the touch-to-feel experience of discovering books the organic way. With a range of books available to us at our fingertips online, bookstores are taking a hit.
If you’re looking for a curated experience of discovering books and spaces to unwind in the middle of this busy city, here’s our homegrown guide to independent bookstores across Mumbai that you can support.
I. Kitab Khana
Where: Fort
Located inside a century-old heritage building, the bookstore is a community hub for readers wanting to spend browsing through bookshelves. You will find every genre here — from prose and poetry to books in regional languages and translations. The bookstore has an ambience of the past to it with its tall pillars, wooden furniture and gold trimmings. It also houses an in-house café for a break from your book hunt.
A quiet haven for book lovers, their children’s book collection is quite curated.
Find out here.
II. Granth
Where: Juhu
Granth is a lot more than just a bookshop — the space also serves as an art gallery and a venue for music events and talks. A comfortable and cosy space to spend hours browsing, the store caters to all ages with its carefully curated selection of books. Granth offers a place to unwind between books ranging from fiction, management, biographies, self-help, and art to gardening, and music.
Find out more here.
III. Vasundhara Book Shop
Where: Powai
Powai’s oldest bookstore and a brainchild of Hindi writers Sudha Arora and Jitendra Bhatia, Vasundhara Book Shop, stocks up on books in Hindi, English and Marathi. The bookstore curates a large collection of regional literature in Hindi and Marathi, including translated versions of national and international works. You can also find Hindi magazines from around the country and books on cinema and posters here.
The store also organises events, talks and exhibitions along with running a book club.
Find out more here.
IV. Sterling Book House
Where: Fort
With a history of over eighty years, Sterling Book House dedicates itself to the cause of making academic books affordable to every reader by licensing Indian reprints of foreign books. They offer a curated range of nonfiction reading material that covers study guides and textbooks on subjects ranging from agriculture to aviation.
Find out more here.
V. Title Waves
Where: Bandra
Covered in 8,000 square feet of books, this library/bookshop has everything you’ll need for your reading requirements. You could spend hours looking for books from your list, or you could use their touchscreen kiosk to find exactly what you’re looking for. The bookstore also organises talks and events throughout the year and also keeps vinyl records of some classics among its collection of CDs and DVDs.
Housing books from all genres, the store also has an in-house coffee shop, in case you want to stay in to read for longer durations.
Find out more here.
VI. The Comic Book Store
Where: Bandra West
The Comic Book Store in Bandra West is perhaps India’s first fully licensed comic book store. The store offers a taste of the 90s with its global comic titles and premium merchandise. From Batman, Justice League, Spider-Man, Avengers, X-Men, Teen Titans to Manga — They have it all.
Find out more here.
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