BENGALURU:The public can now buy books more than a century old at the week-long Bangalore Book Festival, which kick-started at the Palace Grounds on Monday.
The festival, in its 12th edition, has a few rare and antique book sellers.
For instance, KKS Murthy (85), who runs the Select Book Shop in the city, turned 70 this year. Murthy, who has put up a stall at the festival, said he has been collecting books since the 1950s, during his stay abroad.
Murthy’s stall include books like ‘Story of American Paintings,’ which was published in 1907. Others include ‘The Nineteenth Century and After,’ written in 1933, and the second edition of the ‘Kannada-English dictionary’ published in 1923 and written by the Rev J Bucher. These books are in the price range Rs 500-Rs 1,500.
Similar to Select, Ahmedabad-based Rare Books Library is also exhibiting their books at the festival. Pavan M Shah of the Library told Express that they sometimes don’t sell books at all, as these are very rare. “In some cases, the books are only on display. For this year’s edition of the festival, we have brought down 50,000 titles, out of which, 30-40 are very rare,” he says.
Books ranging from fiction, non-fiction, cook books and religious titles among other genres will be sold. The festival was not held in 2013 and 2014 due to lack of permission from the government.
This year too, the organisers rued that it has been cut short to one week from its usual 10 days.
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