Click to Book

Like every parent,Ritesh Hemrajani wants his six-year-old daughter to grow up with books — but,as he says,life gets in the way. Office schedules prevent visits to bookstores and a library visit always stays one of those things to do. “I was afraid my daughter would be drawn to other forms of entertainment. So,when I heard of an online portal,Books n Buddies,it seemed just the thing. Now,I choose the books online and these are delivered at home. My daughter always reads a book at bedtime now,” he says,as little Yuvana flips through her latest books on animals.

While Hemrajani swears by http://www.booksnbuddies.com,35-year-old schoolteacher Suktara Dutta thanks http://www.booklease.in for bringing back her reading habit. Ditto with Aishwarya Pillai,35,who is a member of the British Council Library but relies these days on http://www.friendsofbooks. com for her daily read. “We’re an idle generation. Driving to a library is too much work,” says Pillai. One reason why online libraries,with their combination of convenience and a decent catalogue that ranges from self-help books to Jeffrey Archer to Thomas Friedman,are making inroads into Delhi’s reading lists. Members can pick from 700 books in the case of Booklease to thousands in the case of Bookmeabook and Friendsofbooks. Books are delivered at and picked up from one’s home and,for several hundred Gurgaon professionals,from the offices as well. “When we began in 2007,we were the only one in the city,and most people were sceptical,” says Nidhi Verma of Bookmeabook.

The online libraries vary in their thrust and mission — while the month-old Books n Buddies targets young readers,the year-old Booklease is tilted towards management books and boasts hard-to-get tomes like JIT Implementation Manual by Hiroyuki Hiran — priced around Rs 10,000 and considered the bible for corporate survival. Jayant Dutta,the manager of Bistro,was one such borrower of management books; now his daughter Deboleena,a Class VII student,has started logging on to get her share of books,from Enid Blytons to Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. “These books are not cheap. Thankfully I don’t need to buy them,” says Deboleena. Within a month of starting operations,Book n Buddies has 40 members,almost the same as Booklease. Membership rates vary from Rs 300 for four books a month (Books n Buddies) to Rs 3,000 per year for 99 books (Booklease),with three books being delivered at a time. The books are delivered free of cost across the NCR within 48 hours,and there is no late fee. “We stock up on the latest books as soon as they hit the stands,” says Arti Jain of Friendsofbooks.

Not everything happens online. Friendsofbooks organised a book swapping event while Ved Shukla of Books n Buddies plans to develop his online library to include a social networking platform where youngsters can interact with each other about their favourite books.