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| For those who are willing to spend some time and put in some effort, you can find some incredible bargains in used books stalls. And these days, used books websites have made things even easier |
‘We Indians are value conscious, not cost conscious,’ we like to tell each other. But the notion of what may or may not be ‘value’ is often wildly different for each of us. Is a Rs 25 lakh Rolex chronograph, good value? What about an iPhone that costs Rs 1.40 lakh? Or a Rs 20,000 pair of Nike running shoes? Or Rs 10,000 for a meal for two, at a top-end 5-star hotel? When it comes to spending, financial prudence can often be at loggerheads with emotions and aspirations, and sometimes there’s no reasoning with the latter. While I can’t say I’ve ever had a large disposable income (journalism is a poorly-paid profession, or at least it was, for me), my own spending on books has been profligate, maybe even a bit irresponsible. Back in the late-1990s, when I first moved to Bombay as a rookie journalist on a meagre salary, I used to be obsessed with big, fast superbikes and the glossy foreign magazines that featured those bikes. In Lucknow, where I came from, the latest issues of these magazines simply weren’t usually available, though you could, at times, pick up issues that were one or two years old for a couple of bucks at some shops in Hazratganj. But once I moved to Bombay in 1998, all foreign motorcycle magazines were available there – the latest issues, albeit for a hefty price. British magazines like Bike, Superbike and Performance Bikes cost Rs 500 each and I would happily buy them all every month. This, at a time when the rent for my PG room, in Mahim, was Rs 4,500 per month and my total monthly salary was Rs 12,000. Sure, I would travel second-class in the local trains and eat vada pav for dinner if I had to, but I just had to have those magazines. That was non-negotiable.
I also had other interests – computers, technology, digital music, animation and others – which meant buying yet more expensive foreign magazines. But since the bike magazines came first, and there was hardly any money left after buying those, the hunt for other books and magazines necessitated roaming the bylanes of Mahim, Matunga, Bandra, Juhu and Andheri, scouring roadside second-hand bookstalls for treasures that I could scoop up on a tight budget. Back then, in the late-1990s, my office used to be on Dr DN Road very close to VT station, and in those days, there used to be dozens of streetside book and magazine vendors (for both new and used books and magazines) lining the sidewalks all the way from Churchgate station to my office on DN Road. In the first 10-12 days of every month, when my salary account was relatively healthy, lunch would often be a hearty biryani, after which I would walk to those streetside book stalls for a bit of browsing, netting a bargain or two on days when I got lucky. In the second half of the month, with fast diminishing reserves of cash, lunch would be downgraded to plain old dal roti or a masala dosa. And no more books or magazines until the next payday. But even on days when I wasn’t buying anything, just browsing through all those streetside bookstalls near Churchgate and DN Road made me very happy.
In recent years, with the rise of the Internet and dozens of freely accessible websites coming up over the years, I now no longer buy any foreign (or Indian, for that matter) magazines. But, of course, I still do buy lots of books. Not from actual bookshops though. Over the last few years, my visits to bookshops have declined to almost zero – I hardly ever go to bookshops these days. Much as I hate to admit it, the Internet has just made things so much easier – without leaving the comfort of my living room, I can log in to Amazon, browse hundreds of books, read excerpts using the ‘look inside’ feature and order the books I want, which are home delivered for free in the next 2-3 days. While I do love bookshops – both, the big, fancy, air-conditioned ones, as well as small, streetside setups with a mix of new and used books – online is where I shop for books these days.
Apart from the sheer convenience, there’s one more thing about buying books online, which sweetens the deal further. The easy availability of cheap, second-hand books that are often in very good or even excellent condition. About a month ago, I bought two books from a used books website: Jonny Bealby’s For a Pagan Song and Elena Gorokhova’s A Mountain of Crumbs, for a total sum of Rs 398. The books arrived in two days and both were in excellent, almost brand-new condition. New, these books are priced at Rs 439 and Rs 1,981 respectively, on Amazon. Don’t know about you but paying less than 400 bucks for a pair of used books that would have cost Rs 2,420 new seems a good deal to me.
I have often bought used books over the last five years from various websites, though the difference in price between new and used isn’t always as dramatic as it was in the case above. Still, the difference can easily be anywhere between a few hundred to two or three thousand rupees per book, which adds up to quite a bit when you’re buying dozens of books every year. A bit of judicious spending never hurt anyone – that’s one lesson I’ve learned the hard way. Plus, the fact that the used books I’ve bought have always (with just one or two exceptions) turned up in very good condition makes buying used a great deal.
For those who’re willing to buy used Amazon itself also
lists used books, which are often a great bargain. When you search for a book
on Amazon, it will show prices for both new and, if available, used options,
also mentioning the condition (acceptable, good, very good, like new etc.) that
the used book is in. And if not Amazon, there are a dozen other websites that
offer new books at reduced prices or used books that are quite affordable. Would
I still buy used books if my own monthly budget for books was double or even
three times of what it is now? That’s easy – an emphatic ‘yes!’ I’m not a miser
and I’m definitely not stingy, but after all these years, I’ve learned to be at
least reasonably careful with my money. Saving thousands of rupees does me no
harm, especially when buying used allows me to buy and read most of the books
that are on my wishlist, which may otherwise not be possible. Of course, I
still buy new books when those aren’t prohibitively expensive, but also buying
used books has allowed me to expand and extend my collection, and has given me
a world of happiness. Now, when I see a book that I want listed for something
like Rs 10,000 on Amazon, that doesn’t close the door – it’s only the beginning
of the hunt, the quest to find that book on one of the many used books websites
and, somehow, get it on my bookshelf.
Buying used has allowed me to read whatever I want, without having to worry
about the price. And believe me, whether you buy a book used or new, the
happiness it brings to your life is exactly the same. Second-hand dreams? Why
not!
For those may be interested in buying second-hand books online, I’ve put together
a list of websites that you might find useful:
Bookscape
Bookchor
Please note, this not an exhaustive list. There might be many other websites selling used books, which are not listed here
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