Shelf Life with Mid-day: Explore this bookshop at Mumbai’s Vile Parle for your favourite read from over 50,000 books

Treading down the Nehru Road in Mumbai's Vile Parle, a quietly settled bookshop â€" slightly hidden behind a shade awning â€" caught this writer's attention. Why you ask? The answer lies in the shop's massive book collection.

Tempted to explore, the writer entered the store. Shop owner Ramnik Viram Satra who runs the store along with his son, connected this writer to Javed, a loyal salesman working for the store for the past 25 years who took her through the store and the books displayed for sale.

"Which book are you looking for madam?" asks Javed. He takes pride in telling the writer that they have all kinds of books â€" educational textbooks, novels, self-help books and children's books.

Established some 30 years back, The Book Shop was founded by Viram Satra, an individual from Gujarat who shifted to Mumbai to earn bread and butter for his family. Earlier a scrap stall, the place gradually expanded into a bookshop. When asked why, Javed reveals they witnessed a good demand for books back then. "Malik(boss) saw an opportunity and chose to open a bookshop."

Presently, The Book Shop is divided into three sections â€" one is dedicated to scraps, the second for educational books and the third for novels. Additionally, there is one more book-cum-stationery shop located right opposite this one, under the same name which is managed by Satra's son.

Buy books starting at Rs 50
Although the prices of books here are fixed, you can still find your favourite one starting at Rs 50 or 100 if you wish to get your hands on a second-hand copy. From classics, fiction, non-fiction, children's books, comic, spiritual and religious books to self-help and finance books, you can get yourself any book you wish to read.

According to Javed, "Although we always have all kinds of books that customers ask for given the massive collection, if at all we don't have a particular book, we order it from our suppliers on customer's request."

When asked how many books the shop has, Javed gives the writer a modest smile and says, "Definitely more than 50,000 books." However, looking at the wide spread of the collection, the writer is sure that the count is somewhere around a lakh.

To encourage people to read books and drive a good amount of sales, The Book Shop lets you borrow a book for eight days. If you read and return the book within those days, you get over 70 per cent refund of the price paid for the book.

Javed tells the writer that since the bookshop is located near two prominent colleges â€" Sathye College and Mithibai College, the shop sees more young customers than adults and senior citizens. However, he also mentions, "We do have old customers who come looking for classic novels."

While Javed was busy telling the writer his observations, a Gen Zer entered the store asking Javed for the Harry Potter series. Excusing himself, Javed pulled out the series and handed it over to this young customer. In the meanwhile, what caught the writer's attention was a foreign gentleman who was busy browsing for books neatly arranged on the shelves.

Crasto from Spain was in India enjoying his retired life, exploring the city of Mumbai. He shared with the writer, "I was passing by and I came across this shop. Bookstores have always been an attraction for me. I entered this store and was shocked to look at the sheer number of books available at lower prices."

He goes on to tell the writer, "I love reading books especially while travelling and make sure I always carry a book wherever I go. I don't like using gadgets much besides my phone which I use for clicking good pictures when on vacation."

Dip in book sales
After making a successful sale, Javed returns to tell the writer, "People have stopped reading books, especially post-Covid-19. During the lockdown, people were exposed to social media and OTT content. This impacted the sales of books. After the pandemic, we experienced a dip of over 75 per cent in our book sales."

He laments that the ease of accessing content on just one device has discouraged people from picking up books and reading. However, he expresses, "The joy that comes from picking up a book, flipping the pages and uncovering the story is incomparable. Our boss himself loves to read books, mostly religious books on Jainism."

Javed also mentions facing tough competition from ebooks and e-commerce platforms. He says many customers find it convenient to simply place an order online. However, no e-commerce platform sells books at lower prices than these bookshops do.

According to him, due to this, the future of bookshops doesn't look very promising. "Only those who already have a well-established shop and property ownership can afford to run the business. Younger individuals might not want to set up a bookstore since buying or renting a shop in Mumbai costs a fortune."

Books in demand
Although the shops are undergoing a dip in book sales, there are certain evergreen classics that Javed says will always be in demand. "There is a huge demand for books by authors like Jeffery Archer, John Grisham, Clive Cussler, and Nora Roberts."

Further, he says that the young are more into reading non-fiction and financial investment books.

Besides selling books, the shop also accepts old books from customers in the form of donations. So if you have a pile of books untouched for years and you wish to find the right place for them, you can choose to give them away to The Book Shop for the benefit of other fellow readers

On her way out, the writer too, purchased The Vine of Desires â€" a novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni for Rs 100 and headed to the nearest cafe to dive into the story.

The best time to purchase books here is during the day as the shop gets crowded post 5pm. The shop is located right outside Vile Parle East railway station, opposite HDFC bank. It is open on all weekdays from 9am to 9pm, except on Mondays.

Shop details:
Address: 106, Kambli Wadi Society, Nehru Rd, Vile Parle East, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400057
Phone No.: 080805 92422