Love your books? Buy books by the box at BookChor's Lock the Box event in Hyderabad 

Thanks to Delhi-based company BookChor, book lovers in Hyderabad can buy books by the box at their event 'Lock The Box' which will be on from June 15 to 17
BookChor was started in 2015
BookChor was started in 2015

Forget buying books by their weight. At 'Lock the Box: BookChor's Warehouse Sale', which will be held at Vasavi Kalyana Mandapam, Khairatabad from June 15 to 17, books will be sold by the boxes! Delhi-based start-up BookChor, a website that sells second-hand books at more-than-reasonable prices, piloted 'Lock The Box' in November last year in a bid to do something unconventional. "We didn't want to organise a regular book fair; we wanted a format that wouldn't compel book lovers to look at the price tag," shares Alok Raj Sharma, the co-founder of BookChor.

Sharma started BookChor, which was first named Buymebook, with his kindergarten buddies when they were struggling to find second-hand books

As a pilot, they sold books in three boxes — Odysseus' Box, Perseus' Box, Hercules' Box (don't miss the reference to characters from Greek mythology), each of which could accommodate 8-10, 15-17 and 28-30 books respectively — and boy, was it a success. Though they piloted with the smallest box priced at Rs599, it is now Rs 999 to meet their financial projection. After successfully conducting the event in Pune, Bengaluru and other cities, they will finally be coming to Hyderabad. "We have a huge reader-base in Hyderabad. Of course, we had to come here," shares an excited Sharma.

Our readers are so excited and they are flooding our inbox with requests to bring Lock The Box to their city


Alok Raj Sharma, co-founder, BookChor 

About one lakh books in eight to ten genres, including bestsellers, will find their way to Hyderabad along with a 20-member team from the start-up. They will also take the help of about 30 volunteers from the city. We ask Sharma if they are bringing any books that are specific to the requirement of the city and he answers, "Yes! For some reason, we have been receiving a lot of requests for Reader's Digest, so we are definitely bringing those along with some architectural, art and coffee table books too," informs the Delhi-born co-founder.

Odysseus’ Box which can contain 8-10 books is priced at Rs 999, Perseus’ Box which can contain 15-17 books is priced at Rs 1,499 and the Hercules’ Box which can contain 28-30 books is priced at `2,499

The pre-loved books that BookChor sells go through three levels of quality checks to make sure that they are not pirated and are in readable condition, informs the 24-year-old. And despite what every other statistic tells us, Sharma assures us that readership is definitely on the rise, “by at least 20%.” And to tap into the rising readership, BookChor has their own app, Bookstagram, where the readers are divided into four houses (think Harry Potter) and are encouraged to hold discussions about the books they read. They have also taken over certain school libraries in Dehradun and try to replenish them with contemporary books, so that students have access to books beyond Goosebumps, Enid Blyton and Scholastic. "We are also piloting a system where the reader has the option of selling their books on our platform, so let's see how that goes," he concludes.

For more on them, click on bookchor.com

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