Midland Bookstore is tucked away in a basement reached by a narrow flight of stairs opposite the Bhelpuriwallahs in South Extension Market part-I. Since its a narrow side lane, you are unlikely to stumble upon it serendipitously, but ask anyone in the market and you’ll be directed to it immediately.
The bookstore is part of a chain of three bookstores, one in Aurobindo place and the third being a round kiosk at Janpath below the old Indian Oil building. These are managed by three brothers, of whom I always find the South Ext one , Assad, the best informed and most helpful.It’s great to have a bookseller who knows his books. Yussuf at Janpath is also not bad by way of being very helpful but doesn’t appear to be well informed.
Midland has a fairly large collection of books for all tastes. Philosophy, history, art, graphic novels, feminist writings, children’s literature (actually a great range, and not just standard Enid Blyton/Nancy Drew/Harry Potter) and of course all the latest bestsellers are all available. Locating something rare may be difficult yourself but ask and you shall receive. Space is an issue and hence displays are not well laid out with bargain tables of encyclopedias and art books occupying most of the moving space but spend time browsing and you will definitely be rewarded. If you don’t have time to look around and just want to pick up a specific title, Ask Assad is the magic mantra. They take orders for books which are not available anywhere and are pretty good at producing the required volume(s) finally. They are also very helpful over the phone (24653880) and you can check whether something you need is available or not before making the trip.
The best part about this store is the flat 20% discount offered on the entire range throughout the year. This makes a lot of difference when the minimum price for even a paperback thriller is Rs.250 - 275. However, this makes them try to reduce their overhead costs, and hence no airconditioning is to be found.
My personal advice is to check this one out, if it still exists after the MCD sealing drive is done