From vintage paperbacks to rare literary gems, Kochi’s bookshops offer more than just shelves of stories.
I spent my formative years in Trivandrum, which was a beautiful city with broad avenues, lush greenery and lovely old red brick buildings. If this description sounds strange to you it’s because I am referring to Trivandrum of the seventies, before it succumbed to the lure of commercialism and the building of concrete and glass monstrosities to a deity mistakenly referred to as Progress. While Trivandrum still is the city of my dreams, it had one major drawback, even in the Serene Seventies. There were very few bookshops around. While there were a plethora of Libraries, bookshops were in short supply and used bookstores non-existent.
This is a phenomenon peculiar to Kerala which I have remarked upon before. While almost every household in Kerala has one or two cupboards filled with well-thumbed, much-loved tomes, very few of them ever turn up in the market. This is why hunting for books, especially used books, is a tedious and often thankless chore. The bibliophiles in the state are often follically challenged, due to years of tearing out their ever-lessening strands of hair in sheer frustration.
Kerala does not have a Daryaganj, a Flora Fountain, a College Street or a Saatchi Market, something I find strange in a state with 100 % literacy and one where a sizeable majority of people are avid readers , even in these Godless times with so many other avenues of entertainment available to the public.
Kochi’s literary promise
I used to make the occasional visit to Kochi in the eighties as my aunt and family and sundry other relatives lived there. It certainly lacked the old-world charm of Trivandrum, but I slowly got to know the city better. As usual my yardstick of judging the charms of a city was the availability of bookshops and on this count, Kochi was slightly, but only just, better than Trivandrum. One of my regular haunts was the venerable Pai and Company. The main store was on Broadway and a newer, more modern looking outlet, on MG Road which used to stock cassettes and CDs along with books.
I used to frequent both stores and I remember that my most expensive buy ever (at that point in time) was from the MG Road Store. It was a paperback edition of Stephen King’s ‘It’ and it cost the princely sum of Rs. 50/-. I read the book a week or so later and pondered on the folly of spending so much just to get the whatsits scared out of me. I now regard clowns with extreme suspicion have never visited a circus ever since. Other finds from that store which stick in my memory are some Penguin Wodehouses with the iconic covers by Ionicus, and several of the William books by Richmal Crompton published by Macmillan.
The main Pai and Co Store on Broadway, housed on the first floor of a quaint cream coloured building on Broadway, had a larger collection of books than the store on MG Road and I spent many happy hours browsing there. Some of the memorable finds there include several of the Lancer paperback editions of Robert E. Howards’ Conan the Barbarian series and a bunch of the ‘Black’ Ballantine Books editions of the Tarzan novels with covers by Neale Adams and Boris Vallejo.
The brilliant covers alone make these books collectibles. I also remember that I bought personal copies of two of my favourite books ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee and ‘Catch 22’ by Joseph Heller, from there. It remained a favourite haunt for decades and still survives though it is a shadow of its former self and just hanging on by its teeth.
The thrill of unexpected finds
Around about 1984 a new book shop called ‘Bhavi Books’ came up on the street opposite Shenoys theatre. I visited the day after it was opened and had a long talk with the owner. It became quite clear that he had little, or no knowledge of the book business and he was anxious for advice on what to stock. As I was hugely into westerns at the time I asked him to get me some of the books by George G Gilman (real name Terry Harknett) which were hard to come by.
In two weeks’ time he had got almost the whole of the ‘Edge’ and ‘Steele’ series by Gilman , the pioneering publications of what became a sub-genre called ‘adult westerns’, extremely violent books which would have Zane Grey turning in his grave. He also got me a full set of the ‘Man With No Name’ books based on Sergio Leone’s iconic character from the ‘Dollars’ trilogy. I still have these books, and they are much sought after and scarcer than hen’s teeth. Unfortunately for Bhavi Books, the owner’s dependence on such unreliable advisors, resulted in its early demise.
Kochi also had more second-hand bookstores that I had found in Trivandrum. Marine Drive and MG Road had several small kiosks selling used books and the small alley connecting Marine Drive with Broad way (near Pai & Co) had a small shop selling used books. Among books I got from there were Edgar Rice Burroughs’ ‘The Lad and the Lion’, Robert Howards’ ‘The Vultures of Whapeton’ and ‘Conan’, Anthony Burgess’ ‘A Clockwork Orange’ , a graphic novel adaptation of Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’, Margaret Mitchell’s ‘Gone With The Wind’ and several Gerald Durrell paperbacks.
Present day Kochi has big chain bookstores in Malls, but they are all much of a muchness. My favourite haunt for the last twenty plus years has been ‘Blossom Book Fair’ on Press Club Road. I first met the owner Abdul Latheef in Daryaganj, Delhi over twenty years ago when we were both much younger and thinner. We were introduced by my book dealer friend Surinder Dhawan. ‘Yeh aapke gaon se hai’ he said pointing at the young man.
I discovered that Latheef ran a couple of used bookstores in Kochi, one on Press Club Road and the other near Maharajas College ground. He used to visit Delhi frequently to build up his stock and we got to know each other well.
I lost no time in visiting the stores on my next visit home and have been a regular ever since. While the outlet near the Maharajas College Ground has since shut down, the one on Press Club Road is a ‘must visit’ place if you love books. While stocking mostly used books, the books are in good condition and very reasonably priced. The best part is that Latheef is very knowledgeable about books and the books are set out according to genre. This makes it easy to locate books that you fancy without having to wade through tons of books that do not interest you.
The modern book hunter’s paradise
Among some recent finds have been several vintage Pan and Fontana paperbacks in excellent condition by the likes of Leonard Cotterell, Nevil Shute, Hammond Innes and Leslie Charteris. The small army of young ladies who man the store are extremely helpful and have a fair knowledge of books. The place reminds me of Aladdin’s Cave; you never know what gem you might turn up.
Since my return from Delhi to Kerala it is the one place that has kept my love for books alive. Latheef has gone out of his way to be helpful and gives me a ring whenever anything of interest to me turns up. My pulse quickens every time I visit Blossom Book Store, and it seldom disappoints.
The other used bookstore that I enjoy visiting is ‘Marino Books’ on Paramara Road near North Railway Station. This store has a small but eclectic selection of books, and you are likely to find several surprising bargains. The shop is owned by the affable Mr. John Joseph who is conversant with what he has in stock and the books are very reasonable priced. I have visited, off and on, for several years and among my finds have been bound volumes of ‘The American Magazine’ from the fifties and ‘Bestseller’ from the early eighties. He also has a number of bound issues of ‘Life’ magazine from the sixties and similar ephemera. Well worth a visit for any bibliophile.
The one other used bookstore I have visited is ‘Kerala Book House’ on Chittoor Road (near Valanjambalam). They have a lot of books (mostly from containers from the UK) but they are haphazardly piled and it is a chore sifting through them. They earlier had branches on Jos Junction and near Changampuzha Park, but these have since shut down due to lack of patronage.
One area I have yet to explore is Fort Kochi, which, I have heard, has some used book stores. That is an adventure for another day. Book hunting in Kochi is not just about acquiring books; it’s about immersing yourself in the city’s rich tapestry of history, culture, and stories. Whether you’re a seasoned bibliophile or a casual reader, the charm of Kochi’s bookshops will captivate you, offering a unique blend of adventure, discovery, and nostalgia. So, the next time you find yourself in the city, set aside some time to lose yourself in the pages of a good book—who knows what treasures you might uncover?
