Rita Dhital

Kathmandu:

Rich and colourful cultures, outstandingly friendly people and superb scenery are not all Nepal has to offer to visitors or, for that matter, those who stay here to live and work. Nepal also has some good reading opportunities. In addition to shops with new books, there are many shops in Thamel and Chhetrapati with second hand books for sale. These books may be used but comprise varied and interesting titles, ranging from fiction to non-fiction, subjects of special interest, guidebooks, maps, religion and mountaineering. And even the most die-hard John Grisham fan who would not miss out on his latest American thriller fix can hardly resist these stores. Not that the latest paperbacks take long making their way into these picturesque outlets on the bylanes and alleyways of Kathmandu, anyways, if that’s what anyone is exactly looking for what with the huge inflow of tourists every season.

What’s even more interesting and actually fun are the prices of these books! Prices for British and American books are surprisingly competitive here. For example, Hermann Hesse’s ‘The Glass Bead Game’ worth $11.20 sells on these streets at Rs 500. All these used bookstores offer “money back guarantee” of 50 per cent or more of the buying price. Some even trade books with the buyer. Usually fiction is the category where trading happens the most, but sometimes guidebooks, published by Lonely Planet publications once in every two years, are also traded. These bookshops target the expatriates of Nepal and tourists besides aiming at promoting the reading habit in Nepal. “But still the prices are a little up for the local customers owing to their income and the investments they could make in books,” says Lars M. Braaten of United Books. The prices of used books start at a minimum of Rs 100.

And the market at home is also expanding. A reading culture is spawning with the inclusion of non-western writers in Tribhuvan University’s MA English syllabus. Ram Hari Thapa of Walden Book Shop says: “Students of English literature, teachers and the foreign-returns have come up as regular visitors of these bookshops apart from the foreigners.” Incidentally, Thapa’s son Ritesh Thapa, a student of medicine, has translated ‘The Alchemist’ into Nepali so that it can reach a wider Nepali audience. At Barnes & Noble, you can get a book as cheap as Rs 100 and the price extends to 700 for recent bestsellers. For example, ‘Animal Farm’ by George Orwell is for sale at Rs 100. Though nobody likes to buy a picture book that is already used by somebody else, there are some of them available in very good condition. The picture books that are rather expensive are available at Rs 500-4000.

But there are some downsides to the entire business as well. Arjun Sapkota, a staffer at Barnes & Noble Book House for three years, says, “Sometimes foreigners even come complaining about their book being stolen and sold at the used bookshop”. He also adds that “rather than comparing the prices of new and used books, buyers blindly go for used ones taking for granted that they are cheaper. So we sometimes need to keep new books in the old books section for sale”. And there is Rabindra Manandhar of The Wisdom Book House who rather pessimistically says: “With the number of tourists coming to Nepal decreasing, the survival of the book business in Kathmandu is threatened.”

RB Shrestha of Good Book Shop says he has generally novels, romances and thrillers in collection, which the foreigners bring to him for trade. “Travellers buy books if the transit is long and sell it in the used bookshop later. So my collections are more often fiction that people read for pleasure and do not want to collect for future,” he adds. He usually donates books to social organisations rather than keeping it for a long time without trade because he believes that “books are to use not to keep”. Like they are also to enjoy, cherish and remember as opposed to showing off and hoarding. That makes good sense, doesn’t it?