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The Hindu
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Wild Geese, Hyderabad's new lending library at Nallagandla hopes to attract young and adult readers
A spacious room on the second floor of an apartment complex in Nallagandla, Hyderabad, now houses a modest yet inviting lending library. Surrounded by greenery, the quiet neighbourhood allows for natural light and cross ventilation through multiple window panes. Wild Geese Library (@ named after the Mary Oliver poem, is only a few weeks old. A passion project by Sankeerthana, an avid reader and cinephile, it aims to welcome both young and adult readers. An engineer and former IT professional who later began writing about cinema, Sankeerthana had long dreamt of being surrounded by books. 'It was a romantic dream,' she says, referencing Meg Ryan's character in You've Got Mail, who runs a small independent bookstore. 'But a bookstore was beyond my budget; the next best thing was a lending library.' The idea took three years to take shape. She saved up, found a space in her neighbourhood, and Wild Geese was born. Her eight-year-old son, Vivaan Varma, helped her set up the collection — now over 5,000 books strong. Talking about the relevance of lending libraries, Sankeerthana says, 'When we buy books online, we tend to look for what we already know. A library gives you the chance to browse, get curious, take recommendations and discover something new.' She has observed this shift in her son too, who tends to read what is popular among his peers but becomes more open to other titles when browsing at the library. She hopes Wild Geese fosters the same curiosity in other readers. While a large portion of the collection caters to ages six to 18, there is enough to engage adult readers as well, with books in both English and Telugu. Some are from her personal library, while others were sourced from friends, family, and book fairs such as Abids Sunday Market and 'Lock the Box', as well as second-hand stores in Hyderabad. 'Even when buying pre-owned books, I avoid anything too worn out, and I never pick pirated editions,' she adds. Classics like The Famous Five and The Secret Seven by Enid Blyton, The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew,Sherlock Holmes, Harry Potter, and Tintin sit alongside titles like Winnie the Pooh, Keeper of the Lost Cities, How to Train Your Dragon, Geronimo Stilton, Wings of Fire, Percy Jackson, and books by Terry Pratchett. The Telugu collection was curated with help from Hyderabad-based Anvikshiki Publishers. Sankeerthana's reading journey began in Vizianagaram, Andhra Pradesh, with her father's books. Later, while studying engineering, she made regular use of her college library. 'Wild Geese is also a way for me to reconnect with the joy of reading,' she says. The library offers membership plans ranging from one to twelve months. Word-of-mouth is slowly spreading through community groups and residential complexes nearby. As the readership grows, Sankeerthana hopes to organise interactive reading and storytelling sessions to foster a deeper connection with books. (Wild Geese Library is at 202, Sai Orchids, Huda Layout, Nallagandla, Hyderabad. Email: Ph: 7075849255)
The Guardian
31-01-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Niall Williams: ‘When I first read Chekhov, I thought: 'He's not so great''
My earliest reading memory I am sitting at the kitchen table at home in Dublin. I am home from school. I am in short pants; my legs dangle. The book in front of me is called Step By Step. It has no author. On the amber paper cover, in my mother's handwriting, is my name. It is my first spelling book. I still have it. It begins with easy ones, No, Go, So, and works through 20 pages to Deck, Dock, Duck. Everything that follows begins here. When you know your spellings, it is a triumphant moment. You have been given a key. My favourite book growing up My hunger for books allowed no time for a favourite. I was on to the next one. All of Enid Blyton might be one multi-volumed book in my memory. The Famous Five and The Secret Seven and the Mystery series all passing through my hands in bedtime reading, to be replaced later by westerns, especially those of Louis L'Amour, whose great virtue was the supply would never run out, because he wrote so many. The book that changed me as a teenager Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Mr Mason had us read it aloud in class, each of 30 teenage boys following the sentences with our finger. The world of that novel was more real to me than the one outside. When Pip fell in love with Estella, I did too. The book that made me want to be a writer I could say Dickens again here, for it seems to me that I began to write to rediscover the pleasure I had as a reader. But when I was 21, Christine Breen told me to read Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude and when I emerged from the humid jungle of those pages, head spinning and imagination fevered, I knew that, for better or worse, making fiction was to be my life, and I hoped it would be with her. The book or author I came back toChekhov. When I first read him as a teenager, I thought: 'He's not so great.' At that age I wanted style, brilliance, dazzlement. It took me 40 years to see his people, their profound humanness, and the genius of his story-making. The book I reread The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien. I read it first in university when I wanted to know what every famous Irish writer had done. I reread it when I was working on Time of the Child and realised that one of my characters, Ronnie, the doctor's eldest daughter, who secretly wants to be a writer, was reading it. It is always startling when you find something is so much better than you remembered. I sent my salute to Edna at her extraordinary funeral. The book I discovered later in life I could make this plural and say everything by Edith Wharton. But in particular The House of Mirth. It was chosen by the book club that has met at our house for 16 years. During one year we read only 'classics', to see what that amounted to. And there was Edith, waiting. The book I am currently reading A Cold Eye: Notes from a Shared Island 1989-2024 by Carlo Gebler, with photographs by David Barker. Drawing on his meticulously kept journals from over 35 years, Carlo gives us one day for each year. In the company of these sharp, affectionate and wise entries you find yourself saying 'Yes' often, and 'God, I remember that.' Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion Time of the Child by Niall Williams is published by Bloomsbury. To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.
