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...
Religious and Spiritual Books Bring Zing Back to Delhi Book Fair
The woes of the recession have turned into wows at this year’s Delhi Book Fair.Attendees are grabbing religious and spiritually-themed books off the shelves as if they were Kali, the multi-armed Hindu goddess of time and change, and redeemer of the universe, who has, apparently, redeemed an Indian book market hit hard by the global recession.Books on the philosophies and meditation techniques of spiritual gurus, general religion, self-help guides and Indian mythology are leading sales at the Delhi Book Fair, now in its fifteenth year.Just Say No To Crime and FictionThe boom in religious books trade at the fair, say...