Booked,at Half Price

Jeffrey Archer’s bestsellers First Among Equals and Shall We Tell the President are priced at Rs 225,the same as Mario Puzo’s cult novels The Godfather and The Last Don — all of which are otherwise marked-up around Rs 400 at most retail outlets.

We aren’t talking about a second-hand bookstore. The Half Price Bookstore,which opened on Monday at Delhi’s Select Citywalk Mall,is,as the name suggests,packed with tomes,all available at the promised 50 per cent discount. An initiative of publishing house Roli Books,“the store is aimed at encouraging reading,and not only of one genre but a wide range,” says Pramod Kapoor,Founder of Roli. That explains the range of titles,from travel,sports,fashion,cities and hobbies to popular fiction,that pack the shelves.

Spread over 850 sq ft in the basement of the popular mall in Saket,the store also offers Roli’s own series of photography and art books,starting at Rs 75. There are also rare books like Faith & Religions of the World by David Gibbons and The Worlds Greatest Royal Palaces by M Morelli. Book-lovers are already filing in,even children who are browsing through the books like Fairy Facts,originally priced at Rs 395 but available at the bookstore for Rs 195.

The readers,who often scurried across second-hand bookstores or waited for annual sales,can now celebrate — at half price.