With libraries disappearing ‘virtually’ and everything getting digital, it’s been tough for bibliophiles to enjoy the experience of reading those hardbound books. But thanks to growing ‘Book cafe culture’, people can now enjoy food, while reading their favourite books. The Pioneer’s Tejal Sinha speaks to a few cafes and avid readers, to know their take on the same, and it looks like it’s a win-win culture here in the city of Nawabs.
It’s always said that dogs are humans’ best friends. But for many books are not just their best friend but also a way to find themselves.There was a time when we used to go sit in the libraries and read books. And, oh wait! The whiff of the hardbound books, wasn’t that an actual fun time for many of the bookaholics?
Today, as we have entered the digital era, everything has become easy. Be it ordering food, booking a travel ride, or even shopping, everything is done in just a fraction of seconds and in just a click. So, how could reading go offline? There are many websites and apps that provide you to read your favourite novels, either on rent or for free.
Though we do not have to travel all the way to how we travelled going to libraries, but the experience of reading books in libraries was a whole different experience.For all the bookaholics, imagine if you could relish those experiences once again. Sounds amazing right? But you could actually experience it but with a twist. For the past few years now, there have been concepts of cafes, where one can sit with a cup of coffee, along with a hardbound book. One can simply get down to binge-read their favourite novel out of the many.
Yes! You read it right. One such cafe in the city of pearls is Comic Social, Jubilee Hills, not the kind of cafe, one would go on a rushed day, but rather make time for. The auditorium-styled library is home to shelves upon shelves of rare finds and all sorts of comics be it Wonderwoman, Superman, and even Hindi comics. Order yourself a coffee and you’re all set for an afternoon of reading.
The best part about Comic Social is its spacious and natural light illuminates the space enough.
Founded by Rohit Madadi and Sandeep Pattem, business partners who run the cafe is home to their priceless comic collection, a few personal recipes, and great food.
We connected with Rohit, who shares that he and Sandeep, both have been huge Anime fans. Before they bought the city’s first comic-themed cafe, they had explored different cities such as Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. He shared, “The concept of these cafes has been very much relevant in these cities. They had a lot of varieties of books, even more than us. As compared to South India, the concept of book cafe’s are much in demand. Hyderabad is good in a way but it is catching up and we wanted to get into that market.”
So are these an alternative to the experience we had reading these books in libraries? Rohit says, “In a way it is an alternative but again it comes down to people who want to read. Here we offer very good food and our comic books are an addition to it for people to read and enjoy with a cup of coffee and have a good meal.”
Meanwhile, there’s another such cafe named Sholay cafe in Sainikpuri, founded by three women, Poonam Gopiram, Rajani Gopiram, and Nallam Darpana, which began during the pandemic. The cafe began in the midst of COVID-19 and was initially a simple home-based cloud kitchen serving meals to covid-19 patients and regular meals to WFH employees.
In June 2021 once the lockdown was lifted they began their journey as Sholay Cafe and was open to the public from August 2021, and there has been no looking back.
“We are a conceptual place that serves our customer’s fusion food, drinks, coffee, a place with board games, books and kids arena. People come here to have their time reading different kinds of books that are available for them to read. It’s a perfect combination for people to have their favourite food and keep the culture of reading alive,” said Darpana.
The list of such cafes doesn’t end here.
Another such cafe is the Roastery coffee house in Banjara Hills, founded by Nishanth Sinha. His vision of the cafe is backed by serious research and legwork aiming to expand the brand’s presence across all metros and eventually take it international. The cafe not only serves you some delicious signature dishes, but also provides free WiFi to its customers who would want to read ebooks.
For the past few years, Sainikpuri has become a home to many new cafes. The place is now known for its various spots for you to go and have a good-fun day, with your friends and families. One of the oldest cafes in Sainikpuri is Coffee cup. You can not only enjoy your favourite food and beverages along with enjoying reading a book, but also the cafe lets you buy the book too.
Next adding to the list is Aaromale, The Gallery Cafe at Film Nagar. You might wonder, this cafe might also be one of them letting you read books. But, this cafe has a backstory. The building of the cafe is nearly 20-year-old, which was earlier the residence of politician and founder of Rayalaseema Parirakshana Samithi, Byreddy Rajasekhar Reddy. Later, in 2018, the family vacated the house. Anvesh Alluri, who has worked for a few days with director Gautham Vasudev Menon’s unit, resided in the same neighbourhood. He thought this would be a great place to cherish creative communities. The ambience along with the food and your favourite book gives you a perfect relaxing vibe Aachal Dey, a software engineer and an avid book lover shares that she makes sure to visit such cafes twice a month, to spend some time staying around books and also enjoy her favourite food.
“People say ‘Good Food leads to Good Mood’. But you know what? For people who love food and also books it’s always a good mood when you are around books and also have good food. Going to these cafes gives you such a homely feeling. I personally feel it’s definitely a good alternative for libraries,” says Aachal.
