“I am off to a book shop. Anyone coming?”, asked Priya. When none bothered to respond, she offered a bait. “My treat. How about dinner at…”. Before she finished three of us were out of the door.When we entered the New Book Lands shop at T. Nagar, dinner was forgotten. It’s a treasure trove for literature lovers, in the vernacular in particular.
For a seemingly small shop, New Book Lands is always abuzz. An elderly man walks in with a long list of “books” that he needs. The manager Mr Srinivasan D, takes the list and promises to have everything ready. Suresh, an employee tells a customer on phone from Coimbatore that the movie script he had asked for has been dispatched.
When Priya esquires about a couple of books, Venkatesan, young but a veteran, with amazing memory and speed, gives her all possible details about the “books“, without a single reference to their catalogue in the computer. In every single activity of the small and efficient team, their passion for their work shines through. Their very world seems to revolve around books.
New Book Lands, an arm of Narmadha Publications, was the culmination of Mr T S Raamalingam’s desire to start a book shop. The founder of Narmadha had been publishing books and he wanted the general public to have easy access to books. Started in 95, New “Book” Lands stands out in various ways. For one, all the little or small magazines published in Tamil – Kalachuvadu, Uyirmai, Matruveli, Kanaiyazhi, Nizhal, Padappetti, Amrutha – to name a few, are available here. There are more than a thousand titles related to film industry, touching on screenplay, cinematography, editing and the other lesser known aspects. Complete movie scripts are also available. Besides books on films, DVDs of films from developing countries, short films and documentaries of our own film makers find a place here.
Catering to customers of varied interests, the shop stocks Sangam, modern and contemporary literature “books”. Spiritual books, medicinal books, poetry books and the entire gamut is available, which is a rarity in shops selling Tamil books. Consumers of popular fiction will also not be disappointed as “books” of popular writers such as Rajesh Kumar and Balakumaran are available.
Tamil translations of literary works of famed writers such as Knut Hamsun, Ernst Hemingway, Chinua Achebe and Albert Camus are prized works available. Another unique feature of New Book Lands is that books published by institutions such as Institute of Tamil Studies, Saraswathi Mahal Library, Thanjavur Tamil University and which will not be available elsewhere are available here.
With more than 70 000 titles in the shop, about 55 000 are in Tamil. English books include the latest and the popular as Chetan Bhagat’s Revolution 2020 and L K Advani’s ‘My Country, My Life’, among others.
With Mr Prabhu, the founder’s son at the helm, Tamil books published in Colombo and Canada are made available and they have takers too.
True to their spirit, they take orders from outstation customers too and send the same across.
New Book Lands, 52-C North Usman Road (Basement),Near Panagal Park, Opposite Tanishq Showroom, T. Nagar, Chennai – 600 017, Phone: 044 2815 8171 / 044 2815 6006
E-mail: newbooklands@gmail.com, www.newbooklands.com