On March 31, Pune’s iconic 63-year-old bookshop Manneys shut its shutters for the last time, much to the disappointment of the city’s booklovers.u00a0Mumbai has no dearth of such antique bookshops, mostly located in the island city, and also has its own 63-year-old bookshop for bibliophiles -- the Strand Book Stall. Giving Strand company are several other ancient book hubs such as Mahim’s Victoria Book Centre, Mani Bhavan’s Gandhi Book Centre, the Nalanda at Taj, Shankar’s at Colaba and Flora Fountain’s pavement stalls. The rapid growth and commercialization of the relatively new bookstores such as Crossword and Landmark, and the birth of Flipkart.com and other online retailers has already packed off some of the older bookshops in the city, such as The New and Second Hand Bookshop, opposite Metro cinema, and Lotus House Books in Bandra. Would the city’s other ancient bookshops follow suit? “It is a reflection of our times,” says R Venkatesh, a 49-year-old banker and avid reader. “Today, I don’t see any conversation at bookshops. All you get to see are best-seller lists. Bookshops used to be a place where you could go spend hours and hours buried in a world of books with other like-minded readers. Unfortunately, that culture has vanished today.”