While you need not despair of finding a copy of Breaking Dawn, the most recent instalment in the unsinkable Twilight saga, in any bookstore (truth be told, there’s no escaping it), if you’re looking for a copy of, say, Burmese Days by George Orwell, you may have to look a little harder.
Penguin Group India, which has access to the mammoth Penguin group’s impressive inventory of not just the best of new publishing across the world but also rare classics, has decided to rectify this by launching PageTurners, an exclusive Penguin bookstore.
Spread over four floors and close to 2,500 sq ft of prime location — MG Road’s newly refurbished Kannan Building — PageTurners is a collaboration between Penguin Books India and Surya Infotainment Products (SIP), the successor to the bookshop and magazine businesses of LB Publishers and Distributors, one of India’s oldest booksellers, which used to run a bookstore in the same location on MG Road.
“Penguin is currently celebrating 75 years of publishing, and PageTurners, its very first collaborative retail store in India, is part of its ongoing strategy to bring the best of Indian and international writing to readers in the country,” says Hemali Sodhi, VP, marketing and corporate communication, Penguin Books India.
“An exclusive space for our books was only possible, till now, at book fairs. If we put all our books under one roof, it becomes a destination. It’s a very exciting idea,” says Sodhi.
Being in the business of books, SIP and Penguin have had a long-standing association and when the Bangalore outfit approached Penguin with the idea of an exclusive store, a collaborative bookstore with a local partner seemed like a good idea, reveals Sodhi, who says the publishing house is looking at expanding this idea to other cities as well.
“For SIP, it’s the best way to access and exploit Penguin’s vast range of books, especially its many foreign imprints and the rarer books and classics. In fact, the store will have an entire floor dedicated to Penguin classics that are tough to find elsewhere,” says Abishek Laxminarayan, managing director, SIP.
He is, however, quick to add that the store will give equal importance to bestsellers — even providing a section for those brought out by other publishers.
“We also see this bookstore as a very active space,” says Sodhi. One floor of the 2500 sq ft store has been earmarked for cultural events of all kinds, from meetings of focus groups to the more conventional book launches and signings. There’s a vibrant children’s section as well — appropriately for a publishing house that is getting deeper into the children and young adult genre each year.
“We want to provide a space for cultural conversations, for people with similar ideas and interests to meet and exchange ideas. It is an empty canvas,” says Laxminarayan.
