Bangalore Book Festival 2009

I had been to the much awaited Bangalore Book Festival 2009 yesterday. For the first time, I had taken my entire family and they certainly enjoyed. I determined not to buy any English books as I can buy them as well from FlipKart.com for a good discount.  My plan was to buy Tamil books as I would get them for a discount of 10%.  My family picked the most of the books. I got an opportunity to interact with Flipkart folks and shared my feedback. Apart from that we also bought several small books for my kid. I will be adding the purchased books details in my online library catalogue.

I am not sure if I would visit them again today or next week.

I am also eagerly waiting for the Strand Book Festival that is expected around Nov 26th or so near Chaluyka Hotel.

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Online Book Shops

By the way, a mini disclaimer. Its just a coincidence that I write on few websites these days. Recently, I have been frequenting Flipkart.com but have not purchased anything yet.

I have purchased books through firstandsecond.com, rediff, indiatimes and fabmall extensively in the past. I also have received books through Citibank's loyalty points. (Want to share a bad experience here: For a book of worth Rs.96, Citibank took 250 points from my account. They even said 1 point equals 1 Re. but they could not justify how 250 equals 96). 

Many online websites review that Flipkart is similar to Amazon. But I find Flipkart's costs are dead cheap. I get my books from Sapna Books, Books Paradise, Landmark, Crossword, through office library and other book exhibitions. Landmark which never had a discounted sale (probably not realizing the competition from the locals?), recently is running a discount sale.

Next month, we can also expect a discount sale in Palace Grounds followed by one in Strand. 

Flipkart is the online website that provides very discount. No shipping charges!  I am planning to try their services.

Also read:
Interview with Flipkart Founder Binny Bansal

Google Books

Google Books is a great gift to the book lovers. I guess it recently introduced the Full View option where in one would be able to read the entire book. Many features of Google makes us hooked onto the Internet. I am linking to a book just a test.