Md. Rana Mia

Reading book is the best mean of acquiring knowledge and it is also considered as one of the best habits of human being. People in their free time or academic purpose read books. As the old books are usually much cheaper and affordable compared to the cost of new books, readers have tendency to purchase the old books.

As a result, a huge market of old books has been created in Bangladesh. The demand for old books is always high for the student-body of Bangladesh. That is why traders of old books are operating their business from the time of touching education in this region. The traders collect a plenty of used and second hand academic, literary, self-skilled, job preparation, religious, language and many more books and decorate in their stores. They collect these books from their suppliers, students and other people. After reading a book, readers sell their books in old bookstores at a very cheap rate and traders sell them at a huge price to their consumers. There are some markets in Dhaka city which are famous for books as well as old books. Banglabazar, Nilkhet and The Mirpur 10 book market are among them.

What is the condition of the old book business in Bangladesh? I tried to find out and to some extent, found a better condition of the traders of old books in Bangladesh. At the time of price hike and post corona pandemic period, when the businesses are seen bad all around; there, the business of old books is going well, it is delightful. Some traders of old books of Banglabazar and Nilkhet informed this. Sarwar Hossain is a trader of old books in the Banglabazar area. He has a bookstore which includes a plenty of academic and non-academic books.

He frankly told the story of his business. He said, “I previously worked in a garment of Tejgaon. I was then remunerated 30 thousand per month. After the corona, I started selling old books under the Banglabazar over bridge. I am now earning much better than my previous garment job. With the grace of almighty Allah, I am going well with my wife and two children.” He says moreover, “I mainly sell textbooks, guidebooks, model test books, suggestion books of school, college and varsity. In addition, computer books, IELTS, GRE, TOEFL books, and job preparation books are also available in my store.”

Monir Hossain, the owner of the renowned “Monir Book House”, sells only literary books. His store is very close to Banglabazar Government Girls High School and only residence hall Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib Hall of Jagannath University (JnU). He talked about the profitable business of old books. “From the childhood, I have been here in this store. Now I am 75 years old.

I have run and Alhamdulillah still is running my family with this store.” His store is full with the books of prominent writers like Narayan Gangopadhyay, Samaresh Majumdar, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Satyajit Ray, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Rabindranath Togore, Mir Mosharraf Hossain, Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, Humayan Azad, Humayan Ahmed and many more etc. Monir Hossain decorated the books serially keeping similarity with the branches of literature such as poems, stories, novels, plays etc. Where does he get the books? In the reply of this question, he said, "students sell their books after their use, some are brought from wholesalers, some are collected from other old book traders and even we exchange books with them.

Next to “Monir Book House”, there is another bookstore named “Saudia Library”. It sells old Islamic books. The seller of this store informed that even after the corona pandemic, the sale did not decrease. Everything is alright. Two brothers named Akram Hossain and Mohammad Ripon jointly do the old books business at Nilkhet. Their store is set up on the footpath where they sell only literary books.

A vast amount of literary books including Bangladeshi and other country’s writers and translated books are available there. Younger of them Ripon said, “we have two stores and one godown at Nilkhet. We are satisfied with this business but we have to face some obstacles sometimes. We can sell 5000-6000 TK per day and after the end of a month we have a good amount of money in our hand.” But the brothers are fearing to decrease their sales and earnings due to the upcoming polls in Bangladesh. Next to Akram’s and Ripon’s bookstore, another book trader Rafique said, “The sale is average. I came to know that the old books also are sold on online. That maybe a reason to decrease to sell old books”

But on the other hand, Bashir Hawladar, Selim, Joynal Mia, the other old book traders informed the opposite. Bashir expressed his disappointment saying, “the business is not being good. I have difficulties running my family smoothly. I can hardly earn 500-700 TK which is not suitable in the situation of price hike.” He sells mainly academic and job preparation books. He also informs that the sale of old books increases but profit decreases comparatively. He thinks student brothers are now buying more old books due to the price hike. Selim and Joynal Mia are the workers of their stores who are paid 300 TK per day.

They also found lower sales of old books nowadays. Selim while repairing a teared up model test book of HSC said, “customers have been decreased nowadays. Due to back to back strikes and blockade, sales got down approximately one-third.” In his next store, a book reader has been seen to buy some old books. Her name is Sathe Akhtar, a student of International University of Business Agriculture and Technology (IUBAT). She told, I love reading literary books specially the novels. I read above 500 books in my life. But due do the deficit of money I cannot buy new books always. That’s why I buy old books from Nilkhet and decorate in my personal library in my room.”

To keep pace with the era, the business of old books also has been started through online. Now more and more people are buying and selling second hand books from online marketplaces and different social medial pages or groups. How much popular this online for selling old books? “Persistence: Market Research” answers of this question.

According to its survey, the global second hand books markets is projected to expand at 6.6% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) and reach a valuation of US$ 48.49 billion by the end of 2033, up from its market size of US$ 25.59 billion in 2023. In United Kingdom, France, Germany and the countries of North America, online used books business is already popular. Bangladesh is not lag behind. Bikroy.com, Rokomari.com, Daraz, Ajkerdeal, Etopup are the marketplaces where with new books, old books are also purchased and sold.