Online Bookstores in India

Here we are trying to create a list of online stores you can head to to find your favorite titles. We will be adding more details as the post develops.







Flipkart.com - Very Reliable. Excellent deliveries. Costly in comparison to other online book buying avenues. 









Landmarkonthenet.com - Similiar to Flipkart. Almost matches their deliveries and generally cheaper.









Homeshop18.com - One of the cheapest online book buying option available right now. Collection is nice. Their delivery though, is a bit lax.

Shopping.indiatimes.com - Another excellent book-buying avenue. They generally have lots of discounts offer going on which makes their deals even more cheaper. Their collection is good and delivery is also satisfactory.

uread.com - A lesser known but good online bookstore out there. Their collection is decent and price is also comparable to Landmarkonthenet. Their delivery is also quite satisfactory.







Indiaplaza.in - Okay delivery. Quite cheap prices (cheaper than flipkart and Landmarkonthenet).

Join us

We have just crossed one year into existence this August and the journey has been quite enlightening. It started with all the cliché stuff with people highlighting all the ways this was not a bright idea, or at least the flaws in the plan. We’re not still sure if it is a bright one, but I guess we could do without bright as long as we get to read all we want.

We experimented with a lot of stuff and iterated along the way. This has now left us with a basic understanding of what works and what doesn’t and the problems that need to be solved.

The paths that are in front of us right now are in the verticals of marketing, expanding collection, helping people read, financials, design, book recommendations and community creation. All of these claim their own time and effort.

This requires an expansion from the present 5 member team, which bring us to the present recruitments.

We highly value a good team. Passionate people who love books and share our vision of making more and more books accessible to people and hence helping them read more.  More specifically, here are the qualities that we look forward to:

1. Love for reading: This is the glue that gels us together. Improving a service that we use and cherish ourselves is one of the biggest drivers.

it's not something everyone relates to and we need people who do

Frequently asked questions

1. What is bookshelf?

Bookshelf is an initiative started by a few students of IIT Roorkee to help people read more.

2. How does it work?

Really short answer (RSA): A renting system for books.

We have a collection of books for you to choose from. We follow a renting system. You select a book and pay a deposit when taking it. When you are finished reading the book, we deduct the rent from the deposit and return you the balance.

3. How much does it cost?

RSA: Rs. 20 for 10 days.

The deposit on a book is NOT equal to the actual price of the book. It's a meagre Rs 100 for each book. This deposit will be returned to you once you are finished with the book. The rent is Rs. 20 for a time period of 10 DAYS.

Contributions from junta, then and now

Bookshelf started with a personal collection of 30 odd books. Then came surprises in form friends coming out with their contributions to the collection and a lot of serendipitous interactions regarding books, ending in friendships.

The cause had an enigma that attracted people, brilliant ones at that.

The potential of bookshelf in R-land seemed bright and we ended up with 150 books to offer by the end of the last semester. It was clear that contributions were the way to go. It ballooned our collection (which was, and is, never sufficient) easily and the books started moving among people more swiftly, safely and timely.

Alongside, as the collection grew, so did the required hustle. There was a need to refine the system so that contributions could be rewarding and fulfilling for people. We did recognize the fact that people are more than willing to be a part of this but we still felt that be it as good in its own right, it still couldn’t substitute a concrete model.

So coming on to the specifics, here is how it works.

How can you contribute: You just have to fill this form by clicking here or the bottom of this post and list the books you would like to contribute. That’s all.

An Introduction to bookshelf

Bookshelf started out about a couple of years ago in Rajiv Bhawan with a mission to promote reading and discussions in IIT Roorkee. We have gone through a lot of experiences since then. We tried new things and tested new platforms, iterating all the while to make the process of renting and reading smooth and agile.

The developments bring us to our present form, though far from a stagnant one, it does reflect the experiences and feedback that we got from all of you, specially the early testers.

This post is for the benefit of those who are not yet familiar with how bookshelf works and what underlying values it encompasses.

How it works? 

We have a collection of novels. You can rent out the one you want by depositing a small sum of money (much less than the cost of the novel). You read and return the novel. We deduct a rent and return the deposit back.

bookshelf catalog: get it in your room

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People love paper. Be it tuts, prac files, notes or books. Though ease of maintainability, duplicity and transfer along with an uncanny ability of sheets to get lost have led to the rise of bits in place of atoms but hard copies still rule the roost as far as preferences are concerned.

On these lines, we are bringing you our catalog, on paper. The one you can scribble on and make planes and clean stuff with but one which will appease your love of paper. The catalog contains the list of books we have as on 29th July 2013 and a supporting(supposedly) page which tells you what we are up to.

Goodreads.com: What is it & how can it help you readers

bookshelf community on goodreads

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What is it?

I told one of my juniors about goodreads and he said, “That is what i was looking for from such a long time.” 

For some people it just fills a void.

Goodreads is a world’s largest site for book readers and recommendations. It allows you to 

• build a list of books. Ex. Read, To read and Currently reading are the default shelves
• rate and review those books
• find out what your friends are reading
• get recommendations
• form book clubs and groups
• facebook sync

bookshelf... an initiative

"They hide the books in the library."
"Hmmm... Hiding books in a library? I couldn't have thought of that."
"Seriously yaar. Waise to novels milengi nahi. Aur kisi ko milti bhi hai to wahin kisi kone mein chupa ke rakh dete hain."

In an year or so I had realised that to think of library as anything more than a channel for TBLS will be like too much of an optimistic view. It has its pluses in form of reading room, macs, photocopy and not to forget couples (for couples is what i mean) but that's about it.

So I, along with a few friends decided to do something about it. In our third sem (July-Aug 2011), we made a pool of our books and decided to buy a few more so as to have a good collection and bookshelf was born in Rajiv. Through it people can rent out books they would like to read at low prices. It is a steal for fast readers and we're working on making it one for average readers as well.