Bookshops In Colombo
Like Deshan says, if books are going out, they might as well go out like dinosaurs. There’s a lovely bookshop in Mount Lavinia that sells pop-up kids books for less than Rs. 2000. These exemplify the art. The place is called Serendib Books. It’s not on FourSquare so I geotagged it on Twitter. Where are some other places to get books in Colombo.
There is, of course, Barefoot and ODEL, but these are a few places a bit more off the grid.
McCallum Street
If you have a tolerance for dust, these age old book stalls at the end of Darley Road are the place to go. You have to dig, but I’ve found gems like a North Korean Juche guide to art and an entire collection of F. Scott Fitzgeralds. They also have ancient issues of Wallpaper and Lanka Women if you’re into that sort of thing. Their kids selection is hit or miss, but there are some absolute gems, like a huge, almost painted edition of Babar. It’s a used bookshop so you can give and get.
I’ve written about here previously.
Sarasavi, Nugegoda
Sarasavi is a mainstream bookshop, but their Nugegoda branch has some weird gems. There’s a quite comprehensive Sri Lankan section up top which includes a pre-colonial Kandyan cookbook. The recipes seem to involve a retinue of staff and days of preparation. Dip the fish in lye, cover in this, layer in that, fold under, clean, filet, marinate, escalate, etc. None of the dishes seemed makeable, but interestingly authentic. They also have a bunch of kids comics illustrating the lives of Da Vinci and Alexander The Great, among others.
For kids birthdays, I’m usually the party pooper that gives books, and they have a big puzzle book here that’s a good gift for almost anyone. There fiction section is a bit whack however, but they do seem to have a lot of educational books.
Read And Seed
This is literally a room in someone’s house, 119/6 Kynsey Road. They have a small selection of curated books, but it’s not much more than you’d see in another Kysney Road house. These books are just for sale. Some interesting biographies and stuff, but not a very wide selection.
Gandhara
I haven’t been here in ages, but they used to have these red-bound ornamental books, you know, the ones you see behind people in photographs? Intentionally or not, some of these have really good content. I found an exhaustive history of the penis, among other things.
And… that’s all I can think of off the top of my head. For new books and stuff, Amazon does deliver here, instantly if you have a Kindle.
There’s also Vijitha Yapa, of course. I’ve found that they have a far better collection than Sarasavi.
But on the other hand, Sarasavi has a couch.
there’s a new MD gunasena top of Visakha rd has a couch and a spacey reading area. But not a great collection of books, plenty of classics though.
The second hand bookshops at the end of Darley Road was a favourite haunt of mine in the 1980s – my father worked in the plantation sector and we lived on the Dayagama West Estate which was was as far from a public library as one could get (literally next door to World’s End). Thatthi’s monthly trips to head office in Colombo were a great opportunity to tag along and browse the books in these treasure troves of literature. They always bought back any books for Rs 2/- less than the selling price, a real bargain which meant I could use the shops like a lending library :-)
Cargills bookshop at MC also has a small collection with a few gems here and there. Vijitha Yapa @ Crescat still has the best collection in terms of variety/quality I think. Expographic at Pettah and Battaramulla, while best known as THE bookshop for textbooks, has a decent collection of fiction etc. too.
Nothing beats the Lake House Bookshop – it may not look like much from the outside or inside but it has got an awesome collection of Sri Lankan books (especially old ones from colonial times and post independence which I like).
Only place where I could find Ramanathan’s book on the 1915 Sinhala-Muslim riots (which by the way is a great read).
Thanks for the tip! found this really cool book on the post colonial economy at the British Council but couldn’t find a copy to buy anywhere.