The
British Council Library
By
Shayera Moula
They celebrated
their 50 year anniversary last year, renovated the whole library just
a few months ago and now appears to have one of the most sophisticated
and peaceful reading environment in the city.
Only members are
allowed to enter The British Council Library where a student membership
costs 600 Tk and a general membership costs 800 Tk (a renewal of both
membership is 50 Tk less). There are four main sections within the
library along with a fragment consisting of videos, both fiction and
documentary.
The learning zone
provides all resources for O-level/A-level students, books on Law,
Politics, Medicine etc.
English Language
zone, where along with books on language and literature, one can find
modern fiction novels just for reading pleasure.
Business Management
& IT zone is the section for all those planning to be the rich
men of tomorrow. Here you will find books dealing with banking, accounting,
marketing, ICTs and so on.
Lifestyle zone
stores magazines (Film &Entertainment), Art/Fashion, History/culture
and so on. A maximum of four books are allowed to be taken out for
three weeks and while a student member can take one video home, a
general member is allowed to take two for one week.
As
for all the kiddies out there, there's a section called the Young
learners' zone where children aged from 4-15 can discover different
ways to improve their English through books & videos, educational
CD-ROMs cassettes for English tapes and through play on the computer.
Speaking of computers, The Cyber Zone gives you free access to the
Internet for the first 30 minutes paying Tk. 20 for a subsequent hour
or pro rata portion.
Bookstore
Buzz
By
Sabrina F Ahmad
Omni
Books
The skinny: Located in Gulshan, this bookstore is
a throwback on those old-fashioned libraries we see in movies. With
simple, functional décor, mostly characterized by wooden shelves
with ladders to access the higher shelves, and soft soothing music
in the background, browsing for books here is a pleasurable experience.
Pros:
Friendly customer service: these people greet you with smiles. A bargain
counter where you can get secondhand books cheaply. If the books you're
looking for are not available at the store, you can place orders at
Amazon.com, through Omni Books for a small service charge, and they'll
get the books for you.
Cons:
Limited range of popular fiction. These people have a great store
of non-fiction, plenty of old classics, and magazines, but not enough
light reading that would interest young people. However, the collection
they do have still merits a tryout.
Etc.
The skinny: This high-profile bookstore (actually
it's more like a book section in a bigger gift/music/home décor
store) has often been called Dhaka's answer to Barnes and Nobles.
With a clean, open layout, bright lighting and rows and rows of books,
this is a book-lover's dream.
Pros:
A comprehensive collection of books of different genres, ranging from
self-help to modern fiction. A bargain section. Message boards to
help you interact with other people browsing through the sections.
Fun activities these guys are the ones who brought Harry Potter 5
to Bangladesh in a huge, fun-filled launching ceremony.
Cons:
Prices. If you're used to the incredible bargains at Nilkhet and New
Market, don't even look at the price tags on the books here. Sure,
they offer you originals, and great printing quality, yada yada, but
not everyone (and specially most students) can afford to be regular
customers here.
