Inexpensive books anyone?

Bangalore has quite a few bookstores in and around MG road. There's Strand, near Manipal Centre (not Manipal hospital, to the uninitiated), Crossword (on Residency road), Blossom (on Church street), which sells a whole truckload of second-hand books, Premiere (on Church street and my favourite), Gangaram's, Higginbothams, and a couple more in and around the general area. There's even a second hand store in a lane close to Brigade road, which is really old. I can't remember the name. Of course, there's Landmark (in the Forum mall) in Koramangala. Book lovers do have a good time in Bangalore.

Apart from all these bookstores, there are footpath bookstores on MG road and Brigade road. Lots of people buy from these vendors. Why not? The books are cheaper than the regular bookstores and you get all the popular titles. Da Vinci Code, the Harry Potters, you'll get the real popular books there.

There is a problem though. These books are pirated. Not the second hand ones, but the "brand new" ones that you get. Yeah, yeah, I know some authors make a lot of money, but by buying a pirated book you're robbing the publisher too. Maybe some employee gets canned because they don't make enough money. I don't know. Plus, book royalties are pretty pathetic, most big name authors make money from advances. It's not about the money anyway.

It's just wrong and if you're buying a pirated book, you're breaking the law. Sure, you won't get arrested, sure you can protest that you didn't know, but didn't you at least wonder why the book was priced less?

Whatever rationalisation you use, I am sorry. You don't know who gets the revenues from a book's sale and by encouraging book piracy, maybe you're taking away someone's livelihood.

If you didn't know, now you do. Stop buying pirated books. Buy books at bookstores. And if you can't afford it, go to a library instead.