Her name is Mary and she has been selling books for over 30 years. She is known as the bookseller who cannot read!
She runs a bookshop in Chennai, the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The bookshop does not have an address.
Even though she “doesn’t know how to read, she digs out all the books her customers need – from 5th standard texts to engineering guides, law to Chartered Accountancy, test banks to crack IIT’s entrance exam, the GMAT and GRE to comics and classics.”
And like many of old time booksellers she can be a little grumpy:
I am telling you Jeffrey Archer is not there!” She snaps at a customer who doggedly tries to sift through her mountain of books. She says that it becomes difficult to find books if people keep shuffling through them. She has become distrustful of her customers because even those who ‘look decent’ have stolen many of her precious books.
Her prices are firm “and there’s no bargaining with her.”
