I read Helene Hanff’s "84, Charing Cross Road" as a teenager and fell in love with the very idea of Marks & Co. – the antiquarian booksellers in London that Helene bought many books and incidentally, warm memories from. As a compulsive reader and a book-lover I used to fantasize about entering a dim musty shop selling books from another century; a place where I’d discover rare gems from history, read footnotes that someone left while absorbing the book and scratch a dog-ear or two wondering why it was on that page and not another that I found more interesting.
And then I entered my own version of Marks & Co. not too many years after on the quiet Brigade Cross Road in Bangalore. The Select Bookshop was everything I had ever dreamed about and for a while I was a teenager again living my fantasy, leafing through thousands of yellow frayed pages from a century or more ago.

Select Bookshop is an antiquarian bookshop that was established in 1945 by Mr. KBK Murthy, a lawyer with a passion for collecting books. Making its debut at Museum Road, the shop had sojourns at MG Road and Thomas School before the present location became its address. It was when this shop was on MG Road that Ruskin Bond had visited it as a child and it is upon KBK Murthy’s suggestion that he acquired the habit of collecting picture postcards. Ruskin Bond still keeps in good touch with Mr. KKS Murthy, the son who took over the legacy from the father. Mr. KKS Murthy, now seventy-nine years old, has many a tale to tell from the days of yore; he is a living history book of people.

The shelves of Select Bookshop, now bent under the weight of the history they carry, are full of books on Anthropology, Sociology, History, Essays and Commentaries and a whole range of other books from the colonial era and after. Some of the books came out as limited editions back in the day and bear inscriptions listing down the number of the copy. Others have been signed by their authors when they were being presented to eminent persons such as the Governor of State for example. Stepping into that small unassuming shop is like stepping into a time machine.

Just as one begins to wonder how these books ever found their way into the collection, Mr. Murthy pitches in with a story about the book you might be holding in your hands. The stories have grown with him, stories about how CR Rajagopalachari used to borrow books from his father’s personal collection in Kurnool, stories from acquaintances of the likes of Kenneth Anderson, stories to regale and reminisce. As for Mr. Murthy himself, people like Ramachandra Guha, Romila Thapar and Ruskin Bond happen to be his personal acquaintances and he can always be trusted to keep you engaged in a narration of your interest.

If there is a specific book you are looking for, you can leave you name, phone number and the name of the book in a small diary that is maintained at the shop. Mr. Murthy will try and find it for you. Usually, he calls back with the prize find.

With his son joining Mr. Murthy in the recent years, Select Bookshop is ensured of seeing many more years of regaling book lovers with its treasures and its tales. For all those who love a good book and enjoy a good story, this one is definitely to be bookmarked!