Welcome to Chennai’s garage-turned-second-hand bookshop with ‘rare’ collection

82-year-old Chennai resident SA Govindaraju decided to turn his garage into a bookshop which boasts of rare collection of books.

Chennai, June 2: If you are a book lover you would understand why 82-year-old Chennai resident SA Govindaraju decided to turn his garage into a bookshop which boasts of rare collection of books.

Reading and collecting books are two of Govindaraju's favourite hobbies since his childhood. That is why he decided to turn his book collection into a shop in his garage at his home in the city's RK Puram locality.

The bookshop, full of books, lying on the floor too, is known among the bookworms of the city as "Rare Books".

Talking to ANI, the 82-year-old friendly gentleman said, "It was my father who inculcated in me the habit of reading and collecting books. Today, I have a bookshop. A few books in my collection are over 150 years old. Some of the books are from the 18th century. Advertisement and cartoons are almost 100 years old. I started collecting books at the age of 24."

Talking to The Hindu, he said that he wanted "to own the biggest second-hand bookshop in South India." He did reach the milestone as he had collected over 10,000 books a few years ago.

Later, he decided to sell them all almost eight years ago because of space constraint. Govindaraju is once again collecting books, a hobby he loves the most. "I could not be without my books," he told The Hindu.

We wish him all the best in his "mission" of collecting rare books and regaling bookworms with his treasure trove. Next time you are in Chennai do visit "Rare Books" because it is truly a "unique" landmark in the heart of the city.