The city remained a booklover’s paradise with Select Book Shop, founded in 1945, holding pride of place with its unrivalled collection of old books. K. K. S. Murthy, aeronautical engineer turned sage, became both a father figure among bookstall owners and a Bangalore institution. Relative newcomers like Blossoms ensured Bangalore’s primacy as a used books centre after Moore Market in Madras was destroyed by a mysterious fire in 1985.
