Bookshop sells books by kgs, draws book lovers in droves

A bookshop right in the city centre Lal Chowk Srinagar is selling books by kilograms, attracting book lovers in droves every day.
The sale of books at ‘Best Seller’ in kilograms started nearly a week ago and has so far elicited an immense response from people of different age groups, making it the first-of-its-kind sale in Kashmir.
“So far, we have seen books being sold by kilograms only in Delhi and other major metropolitan cities of the country; it is something new when it comes to Kashmir; the response has been immense, with book lovers getting a chance to buy a wide range of books at a nominal price,” Saniyasnain Chillo, owner of the bookshop told Excelsior.
He said that they are going to continue selling books by kilograms in the days to come and will also ensure restocking soon to meet demand.
As soon as the shop opens in the morning, it starts welcoming people, and soon, book lovers are seen sifting through huge stacks of fiction and non-fiction, trying to get their hands on best-selling books, with lucky ones finding costlier books at a nominal price.
“I recently found a book on a subject published by Oxford Press; such books are usually costly, but I was lucky to get it for just a few bucks; it is a time-consuming exercise, but it surely pays off,” said one of the book lovers at the shop, Firdous Ahmad.
The operators of the shop said that there wasn’t any major promotion done to spread the word about books being available by kilograms here; “rather, we simply posted a story on Instagram and other social media platforms; mainly, it was word of mouth that did it all,” said Abid Nabi, who assists the owner at the shop.
The owner of the bookshop informed that in the last few days, nearly 150 kilograms of books were sold and that customers throng the bookshop almost every day.
“Even though we are ensuring enough stock, we could have done more, but the space constraints do not allow us to do that; keeping in view the response, we will get more stock in days to come and place the same in the shop phase-wise,” owner Saniyasnain said.
A teenage book lover, Raihan, who studies in class 9, searching the bookshelves, expressed his happiness after finding a book of his interest.
“I love to learn about astronomical things; after spending half an hour here, I was able to find a History of Science book and I am quite happy; before this, we used to see books being sold by roadside vendors, but this is something new; a treat to people like me who love books,” he said.