As a tourist to any city, very rarely would anyone recommend a bookstore as a place to visit (at least in India). But if you love books, Blossoms and The Bookworm are two stores that you shouldn't miss. Even if you are not much of a reader, a trip to these stores might change your mind. And if you are based out of Bangalore and haven't been to these stores, you should be ashamed.

Thousands of books, old and new, the musty smell of old books, the creases on the cover, the soft-bounded, the hard-bounded, fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, they have it all. These stores are heaven on earth for book lovers.

Blossoms is located on church street. It is spread over 3 floors and is the bigger of the two stores. They sell new and seconds hand books with nice discounts and you will be hard pressed to not find the book you are looking for. Blossoms has a very good collection of graphic novels like Sin City, Maus, Batman and more.

Blossoms' Address: Church Street, Bangalore, Karnataka, India‎ Ph: 080-22261305‎


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The Bookworm has two stores - one is on MG Road next to Barton Center and the other one is on Brigade road after you enter and take the first left turn. The latter is a relatively low-noise and less crowded store to dig for your books in peace. Most books that you don't find in Blossoms, you will find them at The Bookworm. Bookworm also sells a lot of used books and probably has more used books than new. Bookworm also offers good discounts on books and some books are priced less here than in Blossoms. The Bookworm also has an interesting collect of antique books that are worth looking into.

The Bookworm address: #32, Basement, Behind Shoe Track, Brigade Road, Richmond Town, Bangalore, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560001, India‎ Ph: 080-41126755‎


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Amazon is the largest online bookstore (besides selling other things) followed closely by Barnes and Noble. While Amazon does deliver books to India, the shipping costs make some of these purchases unworthy. Also, chances are most foreign author books will have an Indian Edition that costs less and these will not be available in Amazon.

FlipKart.com is an online Indian book store you can order from and have your books delivered at home. The pricing is pretty decent compared to other bookstores like Landmark or Crossword that mostly sell books at the printed price on the book. You will find discounts upto 33% on the books.

I ran a quick search for Sin City graphic novels and found some books that I have long been searching for but never found. Book descriptions are also pretty good but there aren't reviews and feedback like that is found in amazon. This is probably because of the lack of popularity of the website.

Dan Brown's next book - The lost symbol is available for pre-order at a 33% discount for Rs. 468 at FlipKart. The book features Brown's favorite hero Robert Langdon on another puzzle trail set in a time frame of 24 hours. If the previous books are a sign of things to come we can expect the book to be filled with interesting information. However, I wish they stop making the movies with Tom Hanks.

FlipKart does not sell used books and also does not sell digital copies of book purchased like how Amazon does. This would be a really nice feature for FlipKart to add.

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Watchmen is a graphic novel created by artist Dave Gibbons and written by Alan Moore who also wrote other greats like V for Vendetta and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Watchmen is rated the best graphic novel ever written and is the winner of the Hugo and the Nebula award for science fiction books.

Based in an alternative universe where the USA is in the brink of a nuclear war with the soviet union, Watchmen explores the realistic lives of super heroes who were quite common and legal once upon a time. Tough times have fallen and old time super heroes are being killed. Roarscharch, a masked vigilante who never gave up fighting for justice decides to investigate the deaths and consequently we dive into the world of super heroes, their weakness and character flaws. The book is quite intense and has many layers to its story line.

Director Zack Snyder of 300 fame is to direct the movie version of Watchmen due to release in 2009. Check out the amazing trailer.

Watchmen Trailer HD from Anfetas on Vimeo.

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Reading is one of the best ways to spend time wisely. Anyone who doesn't have a reading habit, in my opinion, is missing out a lot in life. It is said that a book is a man's best friend. And there are some really good reasons why this is true:

1. It transports you to an exciting world you are not a part of
2. You get to learn new things about the world around you; improved general knowledge
3. You get to travel to places sitting in your room
4. You have more exposure to human behavior and consequently are better informed
5. As a person, you grow philosophically reading books and are more matured
6. Makes you an open-minded person
7. You form new ideas about a lot many things
8. For the sheer joy of reading

It is very common to find people without a reading habit who like reading comic strips if they have nothing else to do. If you belong to this category of people, transitioning to a non-graphic novel isn't all that difficult. Some people are turned off by the amount of time needed to invest in reading books when it seems like there are other activities that seem to be able to kill time much faster. Consider a 3 hour indian movie that you watch on television that typically lasts 4.5 hours taking into account all the advertisements and songs which you could most often do without. This is pretty much the amount of time it would take to read 1/3rd of an average novel if you are an average reader. Books are much more intense, gripping and personal than movies ever can be. This is why most books have poor movie versions. Besides, a good book can take you into a virtual world inside which time does not exist and you ride an adventure you never forget. You live the moment as you read.

Many people are daunted by big books with hundreds of pages of text without images. I belonged to this category once upon a time. My initial attempts to read failed out of fear of the inability to remember character names over many pages without having a face to attach to them. Also, the descriptions were too detailed and unnecessary. It is true that some books are too complicated for beginners to read and can turn off people from the reading habit permanently. It is essential to get started with books that have simple language, fast and interesting plots and delve with topics that you are unfamiliar with (but interesting). The following books would be a good start to a reading habit if you have decent english and are above the age of 16 (not a 100% rule).

1) The Bourne Series by Robert Ludlum
This thriller series will take you into a world of espionage, spies, weapons, assasins, fighting tactics, surveillance and much more that you normally don't come across in real life. The first 3 books (Bourne Identity, Bourne Legacy and Bourne Ultimatum) in the series were written by Robert Ludlum and the rest were by Eric Van Lustbader. While I am not impressed with the non-Ludlum books, the first three books are gems.



2) Fist of God by Fredrick Forsyth
Covering the same theme of espionage, weapons and spies, Fist of God takes brings you closer to the real world. A story of a covert operation set in the middle east during the Gulf War, this book gives a good summary of the how and why of the gulf far during the early 90s.



3) If Tomorrow comes by Sidney Sheldon
A story of theivery, trickery and deception, If tomorrow comes is a very fast paced book that amazes you with a lot of good presence of mind tricks and is a mini guide book of con. Written in typical Sidney Sheldon style of having a unrevealed twist at the end of each chapter, this book is a page turner




4) Tell me your dreams by Sidney Sheldon
Dwelling into the world of multiple personality disorders, the book does a fantastic job of keeping great suspense especially if you do not know what multiple personality disorder is.



5) Jurrasic Park, Prey, Timeline by Michael Crichton
Michael Crichton is in my opinion the best science fiction writer, inspite of the criticism he has come under in the recent past for distorting science. His books mostly deal with a topic in the cutting edge of technology in the frontiers of scientific development. Jurrasic park deals with ressurecting dinosaurs and is quite a popular movie and just like most movies does not do justice to the book. Prey deals with nano technology and Timeline deals with time travel. Crichton does a fantastic job of convincing you the practical possibility of what seems like impossible science fiction.



Enjoy Reading!

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Jason Bourne is always dreaming. He is haunted by people he has never met in his life. Bad dreams. Who is David Webb? He is trying to reach a decision about being David Webb, the Professor who teaches at the Georgetown University or as Jason Bourne, his second identity of the Lethal Fighting & Infiltration Machine. Now, he is back in the sixth installment of the Bourne series by the famous novelist Eric Van Lustbader & co-authored by Robert Ludlum. Jason Bourne, in this new work of fiction, is somewhat subdued. He has things going on in his mind about the past with his wife, Marie and his two kids he has to stay away from.

This novel tries to bring forward some of the best action and adventures of Bourne that we have seen in the previous books. I for one feel that this book does not do justice to the character of Jason Bourne. A story of danger, love, power, vengeance and a mad Russian. Bourne is pitted against his wishes in to a war against an unknown terrorist organisation and at the same time he is wanted by the NSA. Unknown to Bourne, he is going to meet somebody equal to him in all ways possible except that this person does not feel. The revelation at the end of the novel is fantastic. Alex Conklin has created Jason Bourne for a reason and that reason is...

Go ahead, buy the book and read it. You may like it if you are a fan of Jason Bourne.

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Shelfari is a social networking website for book lovers. With Shelfari you can build a virtual bookshelf to share with other people, discuss books in forums, review them and use it as a platform for book exchange. There are reader groups based on authors, titles, content and geographics locations. This is an ideal platform to find new books to read based on your tastes by meeting like minded readers. If you have a blog, you can even put up a virtual bookshelf on your website like the one below:



Click on the image to see my bookshelf.

Enjoy!

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