Listening to: Where Would I Be – Cake
Mood: Joyous
Ladies and gentlemen, I am uber excited. Not in an over-caffeinated-I-must-clean-all-the-bathrooms
–right-this-second type way, but in a victorious way that celebrates getting
back something I dearly, dearly missed.
Since I left on an airplane for India, I have been bemoaning
the fact that libraries don’t exist. I’ve been kind of floating around in a
black hole for fresh books. I’m not really the type to buy everything I want to
read and have been utterly spoiled by some amazing libraries in my life.
Cue my excitement. We discovered a company called Just
Books. They have store fronts full of books all over Bangalore, including one
in a neighborhood near mine! They function exactly like libraries, only it’s a
private endeavor so you have to pay a membership fee. The membership plans
range from paying an as-you-read 1 to you may have 4 at a time and 2 magazines.
Sorry, let me just gather up all of the pieces of my head that just exploded. I
HAVE A LIBRARY PEOPLE!
A few things to note if you are interested:
- The choice is impressive, but not quite the scale you would be used to from a library in the US. Still, at 4 books at a time, I could read straight through the next 5 years and not exhaust their supply. They have fiction, nonfiction, kids (from touch and feel simple – elementary aged),teen, magazines, and Indian authors section.
- The place is quite a bit skewed towards Indian authors as this is in fact India. This doesn’t bother me a bit, but not everyone likes Indian writing. They do have plenty of non Indian authors too.
- They have an awesome online catalog and will deliver your books if you take the 4 book at a time plan. If the store is not next door to you, this is something to really consider. The site is not the best for filtering to find specific things, but if you don’t mind a little digging, you can find lots of cool stuff. Magazines, unfortunately are not delivered. Customer service/support is offered through live chat once you sign in. It’s a little slow, but they are helpful.
- As with US libraries, all of the branches in a city share their books, so even if you did go through one entire branch, you can order books from any other branch, opening up your choices tremendously. It may take a little longer for them to deliver, but hey, you have more choice.
- As I mentioned, if you pay for 4 books at a time, they deliver and pick up. There is no charge for delivery and pick up and you could theoretically get them to come every day with quick reading and a little planning, but this would be difficult. Typically, your closest branch delivers within 2 – 3 days. You can order books to be brought while they pick up the old ones – no lag time!
Hopefully I’ll be visiting this blog more often to leave
notes on the info settling into my head now that I have books to read again.
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