Thousands of people who grew up in Jayangar, Bangalore and now live worldwide will likely have this warm place in their hearts. It’s a place they took for granted, like the shade of the tall trees that gently watched over them throughout their time in that corner of Bangalore. It’s a bookstore in the market named by city planners as Complex, where they found things that simplified their lives. From the outside, Nagashree BookHouse looks like a stationary store located anywhere in the city close to schools and colleges. The signboard reveals very little about what a reader can discover inside until one looks closer at the books on the storefront display. That’s when you find out why this bookshop has a special place in many hearts in the community it belongs to and its diaspora.
Once inside the Nagashree Book House shop, I immediately spotted a collection of books about other bookshops and booksellers worldwide. They have been carefully selected and placed on the shelf. I picked up Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop from that collection, a translation of the Italian La libreria sulla collina by the poet Alba Donati.
The book is a must-read and will open your eyes to reading, publishing and cultural aspects of Italian culture as seen through a bookshop.
The Footpath Bookshop 