Bibliofile

A Scarlet Spine

Great news, folks—a spanking new outlet in the heart of Delhi, Oxf­ord Bookstore, opens in Connaught Place. It’s big, bright and better than the old one across the road in Statesman building. It really is great news, as bookstores are either shifting to faraway locations or shutting down. The iconic Gangarams in Bangalore moved shop. There was also buzz that Mumbai's much-loved The Strand book stall was closing down, a rumour strongly denied by the owners. But in the time of online bookstores, are traditional shops viable? “Of course, bookstores are growing. Besides, for me, it’s a passion,” says Priti Paul, who runs Oxford Bookstore.

Still Gold

The little-known Swarna Kamal for Best Book on Cinema in the national film awards usually gets bookended somewhere between best actor and best film. This year the award went to the seminal Silent Cinema in India: A Pictorial Journey (HarperCollins India), by film historian B.D. Garga. A few months after the Lumiere brothers screened their first film in Paris in 1895, moving pictures came to India. But of the 1,300 silent films made here, barely a dozen survive. Garga’s book documents this phase of Indian cinema, with rare publicity brochures, stills, posters.

X-Rayed In America

It was reported in Bibliofile, quoting from the blurb of The X-Ray Man, that author Mohan R.D. is “the only non-American author to have written a completely American novel”. This was certified by ‘agencies’. But A.M.N. Pandian from Tirunelveli writes in to say this is not true. “...one T.N. Mur­ari, a non-American author, has written few novels that are extremely American.” It’s not clear if Mr Pandian is referring to Timeri Murari, whose last book was The Taliban Cricket Club.