1. Read but don't READ
“Sir, this book is not meant to be read” said the assistant assertively; as if I’d committed a sin by
sifting through the delicate pages of the text. For a few seconds I stood bewildered, wondering what
on earth the diktat meant: after all, I was in a prominent bookstore which had provided me with
books and a sofa (in which I was ensconced) for the very purpose of reading – or so I fathomed. I
promptly replied that I was only flipping pages, gazing at a few odd passages and hinted at my
acquiescence to the demand that I should go no further than the introduction and then gently place
the book back once I was done. “Preposterous!” I thought. and I continued reading in earnest, eager
to turn the pages.
A few moments later, I was accosted by the manager who seemed distressed that I was still holding
a copy of the book, and reading it intently. He reminded me that this was my second warning and
that I was in no way to be found reading a newly published book. After all, this piece of work was far
from ordinary; it was a bestseller and had caught the public’s imagination. While I thought about as
logical an explanation as I could advance, he left me with a parting shot – “and it has been brought
to my notice that you are a regular here and only come to read”.
“What do you expect me to do when I come to your bookstore – sleep?!", I almost cried out. I felt
no different from the gambler at a casino who was being shunted out - by guards monitoring his
every move - for counting cards. Was I too being watched? Were my eyeballs being monitored? I felt
like a criminal who had just been caught red-handed, reading a book that was not meant to be read!
Nonchalantly, I placed the text on the sofa and challenged the manager to convince me as to his way
of thinking. “This is not a public library Sir...You are only supposed to browse the text…Actually, it is
only because this is a new text that I am telling you to avoid reading it…” etc he said. He then called
me closer in a manner indicating that this matter could be resolved amicably if I simply understood
the laws of human psychology and impulse, and stated – “You know, when a new book is on the
shelf if customers sit here and read, the curiosity is lost.”
In effect, he was feeding me with marketing theory and sales gyaan. He was telling me how the
‘frenzied buying activity’ would die down if indifferent souls like me were to read books in
bookstores first and then consider buying them; how ‘sellers’ would lose out on taking full
advantage of the hype and on maximising their profits through impulsive acquisitions by buyers. He
was asking me to forgo reading the book and buy the book on hearsay. Ah! I thought: he wants to
cash in on the momentum that’s already been created and discourage any activity that might
hamper sales i.e. in his words “spoil the curiosity.” So that’s why my intent to read was being
compared to a criminal’s intent – I was cheating him of a substantial amount of money. And it wasn’t
just about today. In his eyes I was a ‘regular’ cheat, who had been spotted reading material for hours
on end! And here I was once again devouring a newly published book instead of browsing through it
like a gentleman and paying hard cash immediately thereafter. This time, the cash registers were
ringing much too noisily to allow a party pooper like me to “spoil the curiosity”.

2. By now I’d heard enough of his philosophy and confronted him with some of my own: “Well, don’t
you people thrive on the business model of letting your customers read prior to purchase? Now
what is this that I hear about the bookstore not being a public library but rather only a place to
browse? What is the yardstick for browsing vs. reading and how is this being monitored? Say I were
a speed reader, might I not have finished a book much before someone else had even begun to
browse through it? And say I were the extreme type who liked to read instead of buying, what
wrong was I committing by extracting the most from a business model that was giving you people
handsome returns anyway? So what if I took to reading the entire book, word by word, before
purchasing it and handing over those crisp banknotes for your benefit (or profit!)?” I assured the
manager that I would handle his prized possession with utmost care and took my seat.
Purchasing without reading was absolutely fine but reading without purchasing was criminal. The
freedom to explore the minds of great men or to revel in literature was subject to my continuing
patronage as a purchaser. It reminded me of the idiom – “There is no such thing as a free meal”. In
the current context we’d rather say – “There is no such thing as free food for thought.”