College Street runs through the heart of Calcutta, past the grand old University and Medical School, as well as countless colleges and institutes. It also claims to be the largest second-hand book market in the world, and having walked the length of it I’m not inclined to disagree.
The vast majority of bookstores are single market plots specialising in Scientific, Technical and Medical (STM) titles, but there’s a scattering of literature too, and a range of languages. The best represented is Bengali, the local tongue, and many Bengali publishers have their headquarters on the street – notably Rupa (publisher of the million-selling Chetam Bhagat, who I’ve written about at booktwo).
I’m a sucker for big stacks of books and microstores, so College Street is heaven. Each stallholder has their own speciality, and excellent knowledge of their stock. And if they don’t have what you’re looking for, you can be sure they’ve got a friend who will. More photos after the jump.
Hello, we’re back. As those who’ve been paying attention will know, I’ve been shortlisted for the British Council’s UK Young Publishing Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2009. As part of the award programme, the six shortlisted entrepreneurs went on a two week study tour of the Indian publishing industry, travelling to Jaipur, Delhi and Calcutta.
I’ve lots to report when I get round to writing it all up, but I wanted to share my favourite souvenir of the trip: a Bookkake logo woodblock, handmade in the Printer’s Quarter in Calcutta. The Printer’s Quarter is chock-full of tiny printing presses, from old hand letterpresses to greasy offset and litho set-ups, paper shops, and handcarts and autorickshaws carrying bundles of printed pages and jars of ink. It’s a print geek’s paradise.
These woodblocks are made to be used in the kind of (semi-)mechanical presses seen at the start of the film, alongside metal type, but they can be used for handprinting too.
It was all done from the logo on my business card, which was xeroxed, transferred onto the wood with oil, then carved with chisels. While the street carries on around.
The whole process took about forty minutes, and cost 30 Rupees (about 50p). I tried to give the craftsman more, but he wouldn’t take it…
