Book World Central

I came across a wonderful person and a fantastic concept which I could not help but share with you. I happen to come across Mr. Sridhar who manages The country book shop in Great Britain.The online operation was established in 1997, one of the first e-commerce shops in UK and complements the established brick and mortar shop housed in a unique former railway station situated in the heart of the Peak District’s countryside and has proven to be one of the most popular out-of-town bookshops in the UK.. Over 100,000 + customers have shopped with them. They list over 3 milllion titles including magazine subscriptions and board games making it the largest range of titles available from an online source in the country.

Awards / Achievements

• Sunday Times e-league 41st out of top 100 European Internet Ventures
• Regional runner up DTI / ISI e-commerce awards
• Top 5 Future 100 Entrepreneurs by Enterprise Magazine, KPMG and London Business School
• Profiled in the current edition of ‘Top UK Companies of the Future’ published by Harper Collins andresearched by Corporate Research Foundation

The reason why I am writing about this Book shop is that we need such enterprising souls in Indian Book Business scenario who can not only help the book business by means of sales but also by sharing with the society-the joys of literature in the form of various literary festivals and social and cultural forums like:

Booksconnect.com -social networking for the book community - connecting readers, authors, publishers, independent bookshops,Libraries, event, festival and book group organisers. Promoting events, authors, publishers and book titles.

Peak Literary Festival, UK - One of the largest literary festival in the UK hosting events for over 100 international and local writers annually in the UK.Previous speakers have included Sir John Major, Sir Mark Tully, Dame Ellen MacArthur and Lionel Shriver
Autumn Festival 18th to 28th October 2007
http://www.countrybookshop.co.uk/peakfestival

Calver Weir Restoration Project,UK - A charitable trust restoring the 18th century weir with the help from locals and Heritage Lottery Fund to preserve the heritage and biodiversity on the river Derwent in the UK. http://www.calverweir.org.uk

Gnana Trust, India - promoting the importance of education, ecology and arts in rural rural schools in South India and has donated books and conducted workshops. http://www.inamaste.com

Mysore Festival, India - The theme fo the first Mysore Festival was ‘Sustainable Living’ in 2007.The next one will be in January 2008 which will include international and local writers.

Peak District Book of the Year Award.

iNamaste, India/UK - India/UK Ventures -

These efforts are worth commending and all efforts should be made to invite such enterprising souls in India who can rise above the basic sales thoughts and help in shaping the society and the industry in such a way that every one is benefited.

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