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ORBISBOOKSELLERS & STATIONERS IN DELHI8 stores · curated ORBIS register
Bahrisons Booksellers carries literature and current releases in Khan Market, with art books and magazines among its other reading material. CMYK Bookstore sells illustrated books on architecture and art, with publications on photography and design also available. Eureka Bookstore focuses on children's books through an independent shop founded in Greater Kailash II, with selection and reading promotion central to its work.
Khan Market, New Delhi
Bahrisons Booksellers is a family-run bookshop in New Delhi's Khan Market, with a history beginning in 1953. Balraj Bahri started the business in post-partition India, and its catalogue now ranges from fiction to specialist non-fiction. Readers can browse children's books as well as titles on subjects such as politics and history through its online shop.
Best for Fiction and wide-ranging non-fiction at a Khan Market bookshop
Greater Kailash II, New Delhi
CMYK Bookstore was opened by Kapil and Priya Kapoor of the publisher Roli Books as a shop given over to illustrated titles. The shelves cover art and design, with architecture, photography, fashion titles alongside them. Architectural Digest India called it India's largest retailer of art and design books in 2023. Addresses are listed at Greater Kailash 2 Market and Meharchand Market in New Delhi.
Best for Art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, craft, and illustrated books from international publishers
CMYK Bookstore came out of a publishing house rather than a retail chain. Kapil and Priya Kapoor, who run Roli Books, opened it to give art and design titles a room of their own. The stated ambition was a shop that understood illustrated books well enough to dedicate an entire space to the genre. More than a decade on, the shelves hold illustrated books sourced from publishers abroad, weighted toward art and design. Architectural Digest India described the Greater Kailash 2 shop as India's largest retailer of art and design books, and named the Kapoors as its founders. Kapil is managing director at Roli Books and Priya is editorial director, so the buying comes from inside the trade. The head office address remains M-75, Greater Kailash 2 Market, while the shop also lists 142 Meharchand Market on Fifth Avenue. Stock runs from Assouline travel volumes to Sanskrit compendiums and single-subject design surveys. Prices sit at collector level, which the shop does not disguise. The shop ships within India and abroad, and it takes book requests by phone for titles not on the floor.
Greater Kailash II, New Delhi
India’s first specialist independent children’s bookstore, set up in April 2003 in Greater Kailash II to select and promote children’s books and bring children and books together.
Best for A specialist independent children's bookshop.
Khan Market, New Delhi
Faqir Chand opened this Khan Market bookshop in 1951; it is now run by his great-grandson Abhinav Bamhi, the fourth generation behind the counter.
Best for Multigeneration independent bookselling since 1951.
Greater Kailash-1
A Delhi independent bookseller and publisher long associated with its Cafe Turtle, Full Circle stocks literature, philosophy and spirituality across its shop and online store. Its landmark Khan Market branch closed in 2020, with the Greater Kailash-1 outlet carrying on.
Best for Literature, philosophy and spiritual titles
West Patel Nagar, New Delhi
Left-wing bookstore and cafe in Shadipur, west Delhi, opened in 2012 by LeftWord Books (founded 1999); shares its space with Studio Safdar, the Jana Natya Manch performance venue named for playwright Safdar Hashmi, killed in 1989. Sells progressive titles near cost.
Best for Left-leaning books and a cultural space at an independent bookstore.
May Day Bookstore and Cafe was founded in 2012 by LeftWord Books, the publishing arm of Naya Rasta Publishers, which was itself established in 1999 by a group of leftist intellectuals including Prabhat Patnaik, Aijaz Ahmad, Prakash Karat and N. Ram. The store, located in the working-class Shadipur area of west Delhi, takes its name from International Workers' Day. It shares its premises with Studio Safdar, a performance space run by Jana Natya Manch, the street-theatre troupe co-founded by Safdar Hashmi - a communist playwright and director who was fatally attacked while performing a play in Ghaziabad in January 1989.
Aurobindo Market, New Delhi
Midland Book Shop in Delhi's Aurobindo Market carries general reading alongside academic and reference books. Its range spans fiction and children's titles as well as subjects such as art and the city's history. The family bookselling history is part of its character, but visitors can use it simply as a place to search across genres or ask about a particular title.
Best for General books and Delhi history in Aurobindo Market
Midland Book Shop is an independent bookstore at Shop No. 20, Aurobindo Palace Market in Hauz Khas, New Delhi, that has operated in the area since the mid-1980s (sources place its opening between 1978 and 1985), making it one of the neighbourhood's longest-running booksellers. The shop is spread across two floors and stocks a broad general and academic range: fiction and nonfiction, reference and academic texts, children's books, classics, art and design books, cookbooks, graphic novels, independent-press titles and magazines. A section devoted specifically to 'Delhi and its History' has become a particular draw for both local researchers and visitors interested in the city's past. Midland is frequently cited in Delhi shopping and culture guides as one of the city's notable independent bookshops, alongside contemporaries such as Bahrisons; it has built its reputation on breadth of stock and discounted pricing on academic and general titles rather than a curated boutique selection. The shop remains independently run from its original Aurobindo Market premises near Hauz Khas.
Main Market, 26, Block 13, Lodi Colony, New Delhi 110003, India / Delhi / India
Time Out Delhi (8 Oct 2025): reincarnation of K.D. Singh's 1971 Jor Bagh shop, moved to Lodhi Colony after the 2023 close; curated independent-press and South Asian stock. Vogue India: Sonal Narain and Mahika Chaturvedi still running the Lodhi Colony Market crimson-door walk-in.
Best for Independent books and paper goods.
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