Thursday, June 11, 2009

The New and Improved Ancy's Bookstore

I will miss my dear friend Joy, who I have known since my first visit to India in 1991, very much when I leave Kovalam. I have worked hard on his bookstore this trip putting all of the books (except for the Japanese) in order by author (even though I realize that they may not be in proper order for some of the other languages as accented and "special" letters do not belong in the same order as in English). I have catalogued all his 2,760 books and put a code number in each.

Over the next month Joy will work on some of the physical aspects of the store including putting up a new sign, changing the outside paint job and perhaps rearranging the shelves inside the shop.

My last project was to build him a simple website for Ancy's bookstore - I will continue to add to it over time. I hope that his presence on the Internet will help his business increase and perhaps get him - although this may be a pipedream - a mention in Lonely Planet. Here are a couple of views of the bookstore.



Ancy's is at the top of the stairs in a location just a few meters back from the beach.



We've tried not to have the stock jammed together too tightly as this makes it less easy for people to search through easily.