Indie bookstores need patrons, not buyers, to stay relevant

Mumbai's indie bookstores face challenges from online discounts, but owners stress community engagement and nurturing readers to survive.

Mumbai: Can Mumbai’s Indie bookstores survive?

Book Garden at Vile Parle includes a spacious reading room, which owner Tanmayee Thakur says is its most non-negotiable aspect. (Satish Bate Hindustan Times)

This was the topic of a talk held at the Asiatic Society on Friday evening. Hosted by Tinaz Nooshian, a culture writer, the talk featured Amrita Somaiya, director of the 14-year-old Kitab Khana in Fort, and Ahalya Naidu, part owner of Trilogy, a 11-year-old bookstore-cum-library in Bandra’s Chuim village.

Somaiya and Naidu spoke about different challenges of running physical bookstores in the era of aggressive online discounts, such as sourcing books from publishers based in Delhi and the marketing-led turn of publishing houses. But both stressed on the need to nurture a community of readers who were not just buyers, but patrons invested in keeping the space alive and engaging. This was echoed by Tanmayee Thakur, manager, curator and owner of Book Garden, which opened its doors in the Vile Parle market a little over a year ago.

“We have cafe to draw in people, sofas and cushions to ensure they are comfortable while browsing through books and regular events that appeal to a wide variety of interests,” Somaiya told the gathering at Asiatic Society.

Emphasising on the role of bookstores in nurturing a community of readers, she shared the story of a 14-year-old girl who had bought her first book at Kitab Khana and wrote to the store after much was it was gutted in a fire in 2020, pleading that it be kept alive.

“When Kitab Khana reopened, we had her cut the ribbon,” said Somaiya.

For Trilogy, half of whose business comes from the library, nurturing a community of readers is a natural extension of the space, said Naidu.

She also voiced dissatisfaction with the books being churned out by publishers today, saying, “Publishing houses have all become all marketing-led, they are no longer editorially-led,” she said.

She also voiced concern with children’s reading habits being restricted by peer pressure and what’s popular. “What we want is to foster deeper and wider reading,” she said.

Both Somaiya and Naidu appeared unfazed by the prevalence of discounts on books on online platforms, saying it was not a battle they could or wanted to fight. But as bookstores operating out of family-owned properties, they save a massive amount on rent, which is not the case with many other indie bookstores.

A case in point is Book Garden in Vile Parle. 28-year-old Tanmayee Thakur started the bookstore a few months ago even though she was not financially ready, she told Hindustan Times.

“Not opening a bookstore is something I would have regretted if I were to die tomorrow, so I took the leap in October 2024,” she said.

Thakur works as a freelance content writer to pay the bills for the bookstore that includes a spacious reading room and insists that the reading room part is its most non-negotiable aspect.

“There are people who don’t know yet that they are readers and need a space to nurture the habit,” she told HT. “College students come spend hours here browsing and reading books. They joke that one day, when they start earning, they’ll become my customers.”

Thakur uses Instagram to attract young readers, selling the fantasy of a 20-something woman having opened an indie bookstore, circa Meg Ryan in You’ve Got Mail.

Notwithstanding Thakur’s enthusiasm and ingenuity, the example of Wayword and Wise, a finely curated bookstore in Ballard Estate that shuttered its doors around a year ago, shows that few survive in the trade for long.

“I got tired of it,” the owner of Wayword and Wise, Atul Sud, told HT. He started the store in 2016-17 out of a building he owned and curated the stock personally, he said, ensuring it did not have “mass market junk”.

“I received loads of praise for the collection, but no one willing to put their money behind it. In this world of social media, the serious reader is a dying breed,” he rued.