Once the heart of Mumbai, Fort continues to thrive as a business district today. It is visited by a variety of people everyday thanks to the colleges, art galleries, kitschy stores, trendy restaurants. While chain bookstores thrive on the sidelines, its most popular book joints are the places where tracing a book is guaranteed fun for the professional, the student and the adventurer.

Fort Booksellers: The students’ paradise
For well over 50 years, the booksellers on DN Road in Fort have managed to sell the rarest fiction, non-fiction and the latest professional books and journals at throwaway prices. Within 50 years, they’ve converted these roadside stalls into family businesses. However, their chief suppliers remain the same: scrap-sellers who happen to find discarded books or books sold to raddiwallahs (used newspaper collector) across the city. But don’t let the discounts fool you – the sellers know exactly what they have and may even venture a few suggestions if need be.

Magna Bookstores: A quickie for the office-goer
Peeking out from the calm interiors of a second floor café in a non-descript building, as you nibble on a high fibre sandwich and sample books is a great way to unwind before you head home after a hard day at work. Run by a publishing company that provides platform to local talent, Magna runs a inconspicuous bookstore right opposite the Jehangir Art Gallery. It finds favour with local professionals and tourists thanks to its vast, bright interiors, reasonably priced menu (everything is under Rs. 100) and a large stock of management and self-help books. One can browse through Magna’s fare, uninterrupted by either the management or the chaos outside.  
Over the years, the bookstore has also started a health store that has products from both big brands and lesser known cottage industries.

Babloo the bookseller: A book collector’s dream come true
After having travelled from Calcutta to Mumbai to make his own mark when he was eight, Babloo has now spend 45 years selling books outside the McDonalds in Fort. He may look like any other street vendor with his mix of pirated and second hand books, but Babloo is special: he can assuredly get you any book under the sun. His network includes most of the major booksellers in Mumbai, Calcutta and major urban areas across India. As he stands waiting for the rain to subside so he can start selling his books again, he claims to prefer reaching out to more people by selling his merchandise on the street over making a neat profit. Fluent in English, Babloo’s favourite reads are philosophy and management books and he has much to say in praise of the six sigma methodology of business.

Smoker’s corner: For the oldies
Once a tobacco joint, Smoker's Corner, on the ground floor of the Botawala building on PM Road was turned to a bookstore by Suleiman Botwala in 1968. Today, the establishment is run by his son as a tribute to his father’s memory. Smoker’s Corner deserves an urgent visit: quickly fading under the invasion of  bestsellers and paperback romance novels are some rare books that sell for a pittance. Don’t be surprised if a thorough search of the bookstore leads you to a Nordic mythology book for under Rs.100 or a book of poems by Michael Oondatje for as little as Rs.10. Another big find here are issues of niche magazines like Wired, Capture, Four Four Two and international issues of Cosmopolitan, Men’s Vogue, MAD magazine, National Geographic and Travel and Leisure, that could be dated anywhere between the 1980s to 2009 and sold within Rs. 20.