BANGALORE: It is the haunt of the wise, old owl. With his spectacles on, he pores over the written word, ever willing to impart a few words of wisdom. Step into Goobe’s Book Republic on Church Street, one of the newest book havens in the city.
“Goobe means owl in Kannada, and it is like a pet name with a conundrum. The duality of the word symbolising both the intelligent bird as well the fool for books interested me,” says Ravi Menezes, the creator of Goobe’s, who is also the owner of Church Street Inn.
The bright green signboard is sure to catch one’s eye, and as you walk down a flight of steps, the eternally enticing, musty smell of old books welcomes you to a small but cosy space packed with a variety of genres. It is like a little cove where bibliophiles can enjoy their trysts with innumerable titles. Goobe’s speciality is that it is a library as well as a bookstore, and the books are available on discount.
Ravi says, “I had been building the library for over three years in the lobby of the inn and it was open to guests. But as the number of titles grew, the number of readers did not do justification to the books. So, I thought I’ll bring the library out.” The library model is simple. Sandhya, who helps out Ravi, says, “There is a deposit of Rs 900, and you become a member for a life. You can borrow four books at a time for two weeks against 15 per cent of the price of the books. You can take six books for a month.” Since books many nowadays are priced quite high, for any avid reader, this comes as a great option. Although the library services are opening tomorrow, 30 people have already enrolled to become members.
Ravi has put a large part of his personal collection on the shelves (and here, we should mention the shelf in the middle of the room is from Premier Bookshop).
He is even ready to part with them. “All the books are on sale except for those rare ones which are not easy to replace. They have to be borrowed.” Ravi, a bookworm himself, does not resemble the conventional entrepreneur with his dreadlocks and long beard. But he is very dedicated to his cause and is “supremely confident” about the venture. With rivals like Blossoms and Book World as close neighbours, you might think he would be somewhat wary of the competition. Guess what, he feels it is a blessing.
“I believe in Bangalore’s reading public and feel that there’s always room for one more. Also, with all these bookstores here, the street attracts so many bibliophiles.” In fact, he is very open to expansion if the response is good.
From romance to religion, sci-fi to spiritualism, well, everything you could ask for — just walk right in and get it all in this quaint new addition to our city.
