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We lived in New Delhi for a year in the late 70s. One of my favorite memories was a weekly trip to Faqir Chand and Sons, a bookstore. I have strong memories of
by sonofhans 5y ago
We lived in New Delhi for a year in the late 70s. One of my favorite memories was a weekly trip to Faqir Chand and Sons, a bookstore. I have strong memories of walking through the stacks of books, seemingly random, and with no shelves.
It’s a very different feeling from something as organized as a library, or Powell’s here in Portland. You never knew what you’d find next, on what topic, or in what condition. It was endless exploration, pure delight.
Faqir Chand is still in business. They don’t have a website, but the photos on their Twitter look just as I remember: https://twitter.com/faqirchandbooks https://twitter.com/faqirchandbooks
- pessimizer 5y agohttps://bookthing.org/ https://bookthing.org/ At least when I used to enjoy it 20 years ago.
- NullPrefix 5y agoHow good is indoors RFID geolocation? O(n) to catalog them if you start tagging them from one side of the room and don't intermix tagged and untagged pile of books.
- GrumpyYoungMan 5y agoIIRC while there are UHF RFID systems that can give rough physical locations, a clear line-of-sight between the reader and a UHF RFID tag is needed to get an adequate signal. If another book were on top of the book with a tag, that tag would probably not be detectable.
- NullPrefix 5y agoI see, thanks, Grumpy.
- lappet 5y agoWow, that sounds amazing. I had a similar experience in Bombay. There were a bunch of roadside book stalls near the Flora Fountain area where I would find hidden gems - a collection of second hand books & local reprints. I used to frequent the area between 2003-2009. Looks like it may still exist: https://theculturetrip.com/asia/india/articles/a-readers-paradise-on-mumbais-book-street/ https://theculturetrip.com/asia/india/articles/a-readers-par...
- truth_ 5y agoWhoa, you remind me of walking through College Street in Kolkata. A whole locality named after books- Boi Para (literally- a locality of books). The place has colleges, schools, parks, and book shops- a whole lot of them. And the book shops kept and organized books randomly. Many focused on academic books but most did not. It was a pleasure walking through the roads and buying second hand books based on pure interest and exploration.
- cinntaile 5y agoI can't fathom why people like bookstores like these, you can't search for a book and you can only hope that you stumble upon something interesting. Such a frustrating experience.
- leephillips 5y agoThey are sometimes equipped with an old person who has an astonishingly detailed mental map of the place.
- notagoodidea 5y agoI like them exactly because I can not search for a book but only wander around looking at what catch my eyes or attention.