Bookstores in Madras

[Sfauthor at aol.com]

Several months ago I posted a query about bookstores in Madras. Some of you
may be interested in what I found.

1) Higginbothams on Anna Salai is reputed to be the largest bookstore in
India. A general bookstore with most titles in English or Tamil, it reminded
me of Cody's in Berkeley.

2) Giggles occupies one room on the ground floor of the Connemara Hotel. The
  books lay on their side, stacked in piles six feet tall. The aisle between
the two rows of stacks is no more than two feet wide. All titles seemed to be
in English and mostly about India. The books have been selected with an acute
eye; very little chaff here. Staff was friendly and helpful. 

3) Adyar bookstore has a good selection of both Indian and imported books.
Visitors should note that the Adyar Library is closed on Mondays, that the
lunch hour for the Theosophical Society is very long and that groundskeepers
will give you guided tours whether you request them or not. The effect is
that of the lunatics having taken over the asylum. 

4) Motilal was a disappointment. By the time one accounts for multiple copies
of a title appearing in multiple locations on the shelves, the total number
of titles in stock is not very large. Also not well organized.

5) Jayalakshmi Indological Book House (6 Appar Swamy Koil Street, Mylapore,
Madras 600 004) is tiny, but a gem. The entire staff is sweet and helpful.
The proprietor has decades of publishing experience, having previously worked
for Motilal and OUP.

6) In Pondicherry, the Aurobindo Ashram both publishes and sells books of
excellent quality in English and all the major European and South Asian
languages. They also publish half a dozen periodicals, including one in
Sanskrit. Of course, their titles are limited to those written by Aurobindo,
the Mother and their followers.

7) In Delhi, the World Book Fair had perhaps a thousand exhibitors organized
by language of publication. There were a dozen Sanskrit publishers. None
stood out from the others, although looking at the books that I actually
bought, most of them were from Khemraj in Bombay. The hundreds and hundreds
of English publishers were not further subdivided into smaller categories, so
aside from the larger ones (Penguin, Rupa, etc.) they all tended to blend
together.