There are a lot of books out there. Books about people, places, ideas on fiction / non-fiction /history - you just have to keep discovering! So where do you find them .I have tried to list a few places across Mumbai and Chennai - the two places where I have explored for books and here goes my list:-
Landmark - Chennai/ Banglore / Mumbai
This is the best place a bookworm can be in. Not only do they have a large and comprehensive collection, it is also ordered and organised very well.You can spend hours gazing at their collection accompanied by music playing through Bose speakers . Nobody disturbs you or bothers you and you have your private space while you look around. My favourite is the Nungambakkam- chennai Landmark which incidentally is also their first store.
Strand Book stall - mumbai
Located near D N Road in Fort area this is a small shop which packs a punch as far its book collection goes. You should go into this place without preconeived notions of what to buy and I am sure you will surely end up buying a book you really like and would cherish for a long time. Unlike Landmark this store is not all that comprehensive or organised but it has a charm, is stylish and has a better collection of foreign books .The only problem is that the store closes somewhere around 7-7.30 pm which is too early . Yet south mumbaiites should give this place a try during weekends.
Roadside stalls- Near Churchgate, Mumbai & near Luz Bus-stand, Mylapore, Chennai
Both these roadside stalls have a distinctive charm of their own. The Chennai ones have more of subject and academic books whereas the Mumbai stalls are more colour ful. In fact the book stall near VSNL building in Mumbai has the most broad-basec ollection I have seen.
Project gutenberg
Now this is the googly . This is no book store or internet ordering system.This website is in fact a place where you can have 18000 free books which you can download. they have all the classics like Arthur Canon Doyle, Darwin, Charles Dickens, Jerome K jerome to name a few. You just go to https://gutenberg.org/ and discover the Biggest collection of classics you can ever find(hopefully)
Airport Book-stalls
Out of 5 books which I have recently bought, 2 have been purchased in book stalls at Chennai airport and though I went in to pass time before I boarded a flight I am very happy with the collection . Another airport where I found the book collection to be good was in cochin airport and there were lot of Indian books which I did not find anywhere else - all written by new Indian authors( though not the popular fiction kind). So the next time your flight is delayed- you surely know what to do .
Fountainhead- chennai
This looks like a beaten down place . The lights may be dull and the books may not look a big deal but the advantage of this place is the owner is pretty updated on books and if you are searching for a book he would not only help you find it but also tell you how good it is. It has a next- door informal feel to it. I hope it survives the mass commercialisation which is happening in chennai!
Higgin Bothams in chennai is also a good place though I have not been there often and I didnt like Odyssey that much