The heavy rain that battered Bengaluru on Wednesday wreaked havoc on one of the city's iconic bookstores. The Bookworm, located on Church Street, shared a series of pictures of the flooded shop with books floating in the water.
“Due to Heavy rain in Bangalore we lost 4000 to 5000 books,” the bookstore wrote on its Instagram page. The first picture shows a ground, presumably outside the store, covered in hail.
The rest of the pictures show books submerged or floating in rainwaters that flooded the store.
Social media rushes to help:
While many expressed their sadness over the situation, some offered to help and urged other book readers to pitch in as well.
{{/usCountry}}While many expressed their sadness over the situation, some offered to help and urged other book readers to pitch in as well.
{{/usCountry}}An individual wrote, “This happened to Kolkata's College Street last year, and they organised a ‘Wet Book Fair’ where many people showed up to support. I visited this bookstore last year, and bought so many books! Let us know how the bookstagram community can help.”
Another expressed, “Reading community- all of you who are commenting, if you buy one of the soiled books and bring another friend to buy another, not only will they recover from their loss, but everyone who buys and reads them will also turn a little wiser. Books help, a bit of soiled books will also help. Please help this bookstore!”
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A third commented, “So sorry to hear, Krishna. If at all there is any help any of us can do, please let us know!” A fourth posted, “So sorry for your loss. If any of the damaged books are in a state to be read, I would be willing to buy as many as possible. I don’t mind contributing this way to a place that caters to thousands of readers.”
What will happen to the damaged books?
Proprietor Krishna, in a conversation with Deccan Herald, said that days earlier, the store added extra stock. “We had added extra stock because of the summer holidays when business rises. However, many books are damaged.”
The outlet reported that the store plans to save some books by drying them in sunlight and later selling them at a discounted price. However, some pieces are so badly damaged that they would have to be discarded.
“These days publishers use recycled paper, so the quality is poor and most books do not withstand water damage. Comics such as Asterix and Obelix have zero chance of survival as they are made with oil paper,” Krishna told the outlet.