About three years ago, India Today, one of the leading English Weeklies of India, started another magazine, Books Today as an imprint of The India Today Group.
I am not sure about its periodicity, and whether it is a priced publication. But I started getting it right from the time of the release of the first issue, presumably because I have been a long time associate of India Today(as a subscriber), along with a Book Today Membership Club card(like the credit card), with my name and ID number embossed on it. The magazine is thin, with a cover photo of the author of what the editor would probably consider as the most important release of the time, followed by a brief editorial. The remaining pages(about 50) are on important books for sale, often with brief abstracts on each book, the publisher’s price, and the Club price.
The magazine covers the latest releases, and the Club price is about 40 per cent less than the publisher’s price. Though I got the Club card as a compliment from the magazine I find that there is payment of Rs. 200 for one year, and Rs. 750 for five years. A member can also gift memberships. The fee for this is Rs. 500 for three years, with three books free(to the person who will be the gift-member). For gifting member ship, the member has to pay Rs.350 or so.
I find this magazine very useful. For one thing, for a person like me who would find it difficult to shop for books, and visit libraries, and prefer to have my own collections, all that I have to do is fill up the form available in the magazine, fill my credit card number, push the form into the cover given in the magazine, paste it and post it, free.
My children also go through the magazine and give me a list of the books they want. It takes about three weeks for the books to arrive. But the offer is attractive. Local book sellers give me only 10 percent discount, whereas here I get about 40 per cent. I can also order the books leisurely, after going through the magazine.
I have gifted memberships to a few persons in good faith, to promote reading habit.
Though I do not like to do any sales promotion work for the magazine, in readers’ interest, in public interest, I would certainly recommend this magazine to all book lovers.
[PS. The latest issue I have received has David Davidar of the Penguin Books on its cover with a listing of new books by John Grisham, Sham Lal, Daniel Steele, Atal Behari Vajpayee, etc.]