Experiences of a bookworm

There are books and books, and, of course, bookshops and bookshops. There are also shop owners who often look like the characters in the books they sell - a Micawber here, a shylock there - watching you as you leaf through their books, for it is always their books, not yours, though you may have paid for them. My first favourite bookshop was in Panjim, Goa, where I grew up. The shop sold all types of books, most of them second-hand and was owned by a gentle Muslim who treated his books as if they were his children. The bookshop itself was no more than an alleyway in a derelict godown sandwiched between a butcher and a tailor. The owner had a snow-white goatee that shook as he spoke and he knew so many languages it was hard to make out what he was saying. He had books in Portuguese, English, Mara

This article was originally published on October 24, 2021.