ITANAGAR, 30 Jan: ‘Readers Realm’, a book cafe with more than 200 titles spanning sections like fiction, non-fiction, crime and thriller, Indian authors, bestsellers, and children books, was inaugurated on Saturday at Ganga market here.
The cafe offers its visitors a unique experience of reading books of their choice without actually having to buy a book, even though visitors may opt to buy one. The Readers Realm aims at creating a book reading trend among the younger generation.
Padmashree awardee Mamang Dai, who inaugurated the book cafe, said that “the venture is a way forward towards creating a space for young people to come and read books, and to let
them understand that reading is not only about academics and researches.”
Stating that books, theatre and performance art have a slow market, Dai expressed hope that such ventures would pave the way “and these fields will slowly make their way forward.”
In her advice to budding writers, Dai suggested to them to continue reading books, and to keep a notebook in which they can write down their feelings, ideas or inspirations. “Such entries become very handy as source material which one can further develop,” she added.
Speaking about the idea of coming up with the bookstore, the store’s owner, Higio Zargnam said, “We are very particular about having children’s books. I think we really need a space for the kids. Actually, the inspiration came from one of the authors from Bhutan who had come to attend the Arunachal Literature Festival. She has a space in Bhutan where children can come and read and you don’t need to buy a book.”
“We also specially focused on Indian authors, because I myself don’t read Indian authors that much, so I believe we should, along with international titles, order lots of Indian authors and Northeast writers. Sadly, the publishing companies, they did not have books in the stock. They would send by February,” she said.
Zargnam said that local authors who want to collaborate with the store are welcome.
