The Chennai Book Fair

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Everyone knows how much I love books. I wanted to go to the book fair as soon as it started, but I just got the opportunity to go a few days ago. 

It was - to start out - huge. I accidentally looked at the wrong building at first and it was underwhelming. I wasn't sure how 900 stalls could fit in that small space. It was only when I walked in that I realized that that building was for handicrafts and things like that. The book stalls were in a whole other place. My friend and I sped through it and hightailed it to the books. 

I had an amazing time browsing each stall. I think I covered at least half of the stalls there, which is saying a lot. I especially liked the offers on the second-hand book stalls. They were selling 3 books for 300 rupees, which was a steal. The only problem for me was the quality of the books. I am someone who has very high standards. I treat my books very well and it physically hurts when I see a book all dirty and crumpled. The most popular books were in that kind of condition. I only bought one book, but I added a lot to my reading list. 

The highlight of the evening was meeting an alumnus of my department, Ganesh Anna. My friend and I saw him on the way out. I was introduced to him and the first thing I noticed was a huge bag filled with books that he scavenged from second-hand stalls. I was in awe. Firstly, how did someone have the patience to find all those books in that crowd. Second, what would he do with all those reference books? He told us how he spent hours sitting in the stall, looking for books, and then bargaining with the owner for a very low price. He had around 15 books in there and only paid 1000 rupees for them. Now. That is an amazing buy. For someone who adores books as much as I do, buying books at that price is a dream. I would have loved to go back in and find some more books with him, but I was under a time constraint. 

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