Hello fellow book lover,
How was 2022 for you? In the last week of this year, we’ve been reflecting on our reading habits and how our bookstore has changed and grown this year.
2022 was a big year for us. In the constant up and down that is life, we re-opened our cafe in March, and went back to hosting full-fledged, offline events at our store. We’ve had wonderful authors visit our store this year — Aanchal Malhotra, Kuzhali Manickavel, Priya Kuriyan, Janice Pariat, Naveen Kishore, Heta Pandit to name a few. Warm, book-filled conversations with authors and our community of readers have made our hearts full this year.
Was there a book that challenged you as a reader this year? It could be a book about a difficult subject, an experimental writing style, or maybe just a genre that you’ve never read before! You can leave your thoughts in the comments of this blog post. We’d love to hear from you.
It has been heartwarming to open a new outpost in Goa, start our book club and revive our children’s library in Bangalore. All of these have been long-term projects and dreams that are close to our hearts.
It brings us a lot of joy to see little children lounging on our green library cushions, browsing through books about whales, friendship, ghosts, and more! Opening a store in a new state was challenging, and came with its own highs and lows. What keeps us going is engaging with our community of readers, learning the routines and quirks of a new place, and of course the fact that we’re a 30-second walk from the best ice cream in Goa!
Next time you’re in Anjuna, do drop by :) Before we say goodbye, we want to leave you with this listicle, in which every Champaca staff member recommends a book that made them laugh out loud.
You can always find more of our recommendations, and all updates from the store on our social media! Happy new year to all of you! We hope 2023 is full of warmth, and many many wonderful books.
Until next time, happy reading!
know my name by chanel miller was an incredible book, but so so difficult to read.
I found getting through Crying In H Mart really difficult. It was a slow read, that took me all of one month to absorb.