Books-by-weight sales are commonplace in Hyderabad, but Guragon-based BookChor.com will be bringing something new to the table that will surely enchant bibliophiles. Lock The Box is coming to Hyderabad for the first time and the Facebook event page is already seeing plenty of excitement from the city; fit all the books you want and pay just for the box. The boxes Odysseus: Use your wit like the legendary Greek to fit a minimum of 8 to 10 books priced at ?999. Use your wit like the legendary Greek to fit a minimum of 8 to 10 books priced at ?999. Perseus: Slay the modern Medusa with this box priced at ?1,499. It can easily accommodate 15 to 17 books. Slay the modern Medusa with this box priced at ?1,499. It can easily accommodate 15 to 17 books. Hercules: The mightiest of the lot at ?2,499 and can easily hold up to 28 to 30 books. The now two-year-old BookChor.com sells secondhand books online and have completed orders from all the states of the country with a current online readerbase of 300,000. “We have just started with offline events and apart from this, we also have an wholesale arm. Also, we have started collaborating with schools to convert their libraries into smart libraries by introducing technology and other relevant books,” comments co-founder Alok Sharma, who runs the organisation along with Bhavesh Sharma, Prateek Maheshwari and Vidyut Sharma. He is delighted with the universal response towards Lock The Box from the country, “We are overwhelmed with the response we are getting on social media, with requests from major cities. We have been getting positive comments and feedback for our event and this is mainly because readers are happy with the kind of offer they are getting for the books they are getting and they are finding the concept interesting and refreshing.” The project started out with a seed of a thought; in spite of having a dot-com name, why not start an offline event? “We wanted to do something interesting for readers and also ensure they do not feel burdened with the price of the books,” explains the 24 year-old former engineer, “So, in Lock The Box, books are not priced. It’s only three differently sized boxes which are priced, in which readers can accommodate as many items as possible so that no one discriminates books on the basis of price or weight.” To add to the fun value of such an endeavour, Alok and his team came up with prominent names for each box size: ‘Odysseus’, ‘Perseus’ and ‘Hercules’ for all the heavy-lifters at the sale. A shot from a ‘Lock The Box’ priced-by-box sale | Photo Credit BookChor.com BookChor.com did a pilot event last November in Delhi to observe traction where they saw a good turnout, and then requests from all over the country to do it in their respective cities poured in, specifically from Pune, Bengaluru and Delhi. Following the success of these events, Alok and his team organised three events every month in the major cities before the year end. He avers, “At our events in Pune and Bengaluru we have seen daily visitors from around 5,000 to 10,000. Although 60% of the people attending were from the age group of 18 to 26, we saw a good turnout from the parents as well buying books for their kids, which came out to be 30% of the visitors,” adding, “It is really fortunate to see millennials turn up for the offline book event in this digital age. Readers are actually interested in the event and seeing them select over 28 to 30 books speaks volumes of the growing trend of readership in India.” Taking place at the vast space offered by Vasavi Kalyana Mandapam, the event promises to attract hoards of students too. And it’ll be interesting to see people fit as many books as they can, jenga-style, into one box. ‘Lock The Box’ will be happening at Vasavi Kalyana Mandapam from June 15 to 17; 9am onwards.

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