All prose, no cons

Are your reading goals still a piece of fiction? Find your tribe on WhatsApp, Insta, parks and reader trips to make them real

- By Anjali Kochhar

Of course, you want to read more. Everybody does. It's the most virtuous habit of our time. Online, Bookstagrammers are doing 30-second reviews of exciting titles that just dropped. On YouTube, there are endless streams of people acting out a novel's intro, leaving off at the cliffhanger, urging viewers to "go read the rest". There are online and offline book clubs, travelling libraries, silent-reading communities, swaps, challenges and all kinds of shortcuts.

Reading culture isn't dying, says Manik Jaiswal, who runs one of India's most active reading initiatives. It's just taken a new shape, one that keeps up with screentime, scrolling, wishlists and travel goals. When people say they're trying every trick in the book to get others to read, they're not kidding. Take a look.

The book buffet

Some people believe reading is about quality, not quantity. Others head to Bookchor's Lock The Box sales with glee. This is where customers pay a set price for an empty box, and then carry away as many preowned books as the box fits. For those who haven't figured out their tastes yet, and can't afford new books in every genre, this is a bonanza. For those who know what they like and want more of it, cheaply, it's a bonanza too. "Our Lock The Box events turned books into a treasure hunt," says founder Meenal Sharma.

The event travels nationwide. They've just wrapped up Indore and are on their way to Shimla. At every stop, readers find a surprise – a preowned title that's been out of stock in their city, or a promising one they'd never heard about. And of course, Lock The Box also buys old books in each city, so the pickings are never the same.

On Insta