When was the last time you turned the pages of a book, or smelt the warm and musty pages? I am guessing, a really long time! A book sometimes can be your best friend. It consoles, it helps you laugh and grin, it makes you travel, it builds excitement in you and it stays by your side, at all times.
Keeping this very thought in mind and observing the existence of only a few libraries in Chennai, three young entrepreneurs decided to share their passion for reading. iloveread.in, an online library was started as an answer to the lack of many public libraries in Chennai.
Spurring interest
A small start-up by three enterprising individuals, iloveread is a humble attempt to cultivate the reading habit among youngsters by three friends — Amrutash, Sahil and Suchitra, who were schoolmates with a common passion to read. They swear by, ‘When you read a lot of books, you are said to be well read, but when you watch a lot of TV, you're not called well-viewed'.
In addition to running the library, they have gone an extra mile by organising reading sessions for children, by converting library hours into fun and exciting story-telling hours. They encourage kids to look at the world of books in a whole new way, by implementing games and fun in addition to letting them find interests in art and illustrations.
In addition to this they also supply schools with about 500 books that are rotated every fortnight. Suchitra Sastri, founding member of iloveread speaks passionately — “I've always loved reading. I remember the first time I read Alice in Wonderland and fell in love with the ability of words to transport me to places I'd never been to. Reading is powerful because it can create new ideas and fire your imagination and part of iloveread.in's mission is to pass that power on to others. We want people to be excited to read again!”
At iloveread.in, people can order online and get their books delivered at their very door step. The mundane concepts, due dates, fines, registration fees and deposits have been said a harsh goodbye to. iloveread.in lets members borrow two books at a time, any number of times.
Virtual resource
Amrutash, founding member of iloveread feels, “A major chunk of us do not have access to good reading, there is no balancing factor when it comes to reading books. I am hoping for a sort of a public movement to emerge, where-in we all should encourage ourselves and others to read. Books need to be marketed. They are not sold in the manner in which IPL and soaps are! There needs to be a portal where books need to be sold to people, not because they are from a big publication house, but simply because they are good. Library systems need to be jolted back into existence and must evolve; for a better you and for a better me”
When one thinks about books and the book reading concept in this city objectively, it is true that there are very few public libraries in Chennai, let alone India! For a city like Chennai, synonymous with art, heritage, culture and rich music and theatre, it is scandalous that there are very few libraries in Chennai. We have the internet, five second updates, a zillion photos to upload and a trillion comments that follow, it is only natural that reading a real book is fast becoming out-dated. Online libraries do offer solace during such a time. With everything turning digital and internet providing you the convenience of getting all that you want at home, it's time that a culture of online libraries develops.
Siddharth Karthikeyan, internet enthusiast and a media student says, “When I first heard about iloveread, the simplicity of the process attracted me to it. You can select a few books and specify an order of preference. According to that order they'll deliver books. And they give you the rest of the books, which you can keep for as long as the duration of your membership is. The best thing is that they let you request for books!”
Membership details
Rs. 700 / quarter
Rs. 1200 / half year
Rs. 2200 / year
There are discounted schemes for students.
Suchitra Sastri
PS Senior Secondary School – 2003
Wharton Business School (Pennsylvania) Graduate
Worked across nations with Boston Consulting Group at New York
Motto: Wants to see more libraries in Chennai
Favourite Books: Love in the Time of Cholera and Sophie's World
Sahil Gore
PS Senior Secondary School – 2003
VIT – Pune Graduate
Worked with Infosys, passionate about Web2.0
Motto: To help people rediscover the joy of reading
Favourite Books: Bridge to Terabithia and Les Miserables
Amrutash Mishra
PS Senior Secondary School – 2003
IIT Madras Graduate
Quit Hindustan Unilever Limited to co-found LifeOnline
Motto: Wants to ‘bring sexy back to reading'
Favourite Books: The Great Gatsby and Midnight's Children
Vishnupriya is a IIIrd Year BA Journalism student , Madras Christian College.
