There have always been book conversations at work among the many 20-somethings who work there, but now with this serendipitous set, there is an added zing. Organise these books and I will add more from my personal collection as well, promises Madhavan.

Speedily, space is found.

Shelves are cleared and storage space becomes a library. People begin to bring in books from their homes. Madhavan provides thrillers like Alistair MacLean and murders mysteries by Keigo Higashino and Jo Nesbo. Another colleague contributes his entire Lee Child collection. And just like that, the PRS library is born.

It’s easy to create a corporate library, at almost zero expense, to give people a sense of the larger world, a space to de-stress, and an opportunity to connect with co-workers.

Here are six steps to get you started:

1. Start small: Ten or twenty books on a single bookshelf is a good start. These will provide the impetus to scour for more shelf space and add more books. Start carrying books to work, leaving them there and you may be surprised at what you start.

2. Location, location, location: Keeping books in a common area where they are easily accessible, helps to encourage folks to pick up a book while they are taking a break, waiting for a meeting, or just looking for creative ideas or reference material, says Vandana Sharma, VP, People, at Pune-based Super Gaming, which has a well-used library at work.

3. Add a chair (or two):

4 . Curate the collection around your business, yet allow for serendipity and diversity: At the beverage consulting company, Tulleeho, many of the Delhi office library books are around wines, spirits, beer and cocktails. Like Amaro, The Bon-Vivant’s Companion by Jerry Thomas, and the library’s most prized possession — a signed copy of The Joy of Mixology by Gary Regan.

At the Supergaming library, there are gaming classics like Masters of Doom and Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, and books on how to make a zombie apocalypse look believable. There are also books like Bossypants and The Palace of Illusions. Not everyone is an avid reader. Therefore, it is essential to keep books for beginners as well as bookworms. The more diverse the range is, the more it will keep different kinds of folks interested in the collection, says Vandana Sharma

5. The honour system works very well if you don’t have a librarian: We don’t have a borrowing system or a librarian, says Sharma. Neither does PRS. This same honour system has resulted in an interesting twist at the library at the Fractal Analytics library. Scroll down to find out what this unexpected development is.

6. Start an office book club and keep up with it even if 2 people attend. At Fractal Analytics, book-driven rituals have kept the library and reading culture animated. (We have a) weekly virtual get-together where everyone discusses insights they gained from an article or book read in the past week. Sometimes it is a meeting where everyone is urged to speak about what they are reading and recommend reading books/articles, says Srikanth Velamakanni, IIM Ahmedabad alumnus Group Chief Executive & Vice-Chairman, Fractal Analytics.

I interviewed Srikanth many years ago and came away with a whole list of amazing book recommendations including Influence by Robert Cialdini. Since then, we have kept in touch, trading book reviews every six months or so.

Here are edited excerpts of our conversation on his early reading and his office library.

Tell us about your early reading.

I read no books till I turned 11. That year, our summer vacation was cancelled, and as super disappointed kids, we turned to all the books we could find at home. My brother, who was significantly older than me, had a fantastic collection. And my younger brother, sister and I were hooked. A life-long passion for reading ensued.

Later, when I joined my first job near Fort Mumbai, I started buying secondhand books sold on the pavement every day. It was so thrilling to discover new books and amazing bargains! And then there were stores such as the Strand book stall and Lotus bookstore in Bandra. Those were some amazing days.

What’s your reading style?

Every few months, I go through a phase where I don't feel like reading. I firmly believe that one must read for enjoyment and learning. I read about 15 books in parallel. That helps me pick the right book for the mood I am currently in. I also don't force myself to finish reading a book that I am no longer enjoying. Nowadays, I like to read on the Kindle while listening to a book on Audible. The advantage of reading on Kindle is that you can increase the font size.

How do you balance reading widely with what is useful for your work?

I go with what I find most enjoyable. Since 2021, I have really dialled up my fiction reading, including mysteries, thrillers, and science fiction. I love also reading books on behavioural sciences, psychology, memoirs and biographies.

Have you encouraged your daughter to be a reader as well?

I read to my ten-year-old daughter every night. I read the entire Harry Potter series to her—that’s over 1,000,000 words. It’s now become our ritual and one part of my day that I look forward to the most.

What inspired having books in the office?

Fractal seemed to attract avid readers from its early days, so a library was a natural outcome of that. Despite the space constraints in the initial days, we somehow still found room for books.

Tell us about your library.

We have an open library with 1,500 books on all four floors, all oval in shape, all in the middle of the floor so people can “run into” books often. Several Fractalites also have their own mini library setup by their desk.

Did it grow organically or did you start off with a core set?

A mix of both. Every time I loved a book like say, Man’s Search for Meaning or How Will You Measure Your Life?, I got a few copies for the library as well. These are books I wanted all our people to read.

We started with a lot of books about Math, Psychology and Analytics. As Fractal grew, so did the genres. I just walked to the library on my floor and saw Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot next to Ron Chernow’s Titan which was next to a book called Introduction to Materials Management. It all grew serendipitously.

Do you have a system to borrow books?

To borrow, we have a rather simple system: Trust. To keep some order, we do request people notify us over email when they borrow a book, and request the book to be returned in 15 days. No one’s actively monitoring this, which may one reason why sometimes when a book is borrowed, two are returned. Perhaps it’s their way of saying thanks.

What are some ways you promote a culture of reading at work?

If you create reading rituals at work, the library will take care of itself. We have book clubs and discussion forums. Within my team (and I encourage all our leaders to do it with their teams), we discuss books almost every day as soon as we complete them, sometimes even reading parts of them together. We discuss key concepts from the books, and I have realised this also helps me retain what I have read, which I find increasingly challenging. Teaching is the best way to learn and what better subject than books?

About 90% of the gifts we give out at Fractal are books – internally and externally. If we have authors speaking at our weekly Town halls, we make sure everyone who requests a copy of their book gets one. We had Marshall Goldsmith recently and we sent out over a thousand copies of his book, The Earned Life.

What are the benefits of having a library at work?

The biggest benefit is it helps readers meet other readers – who will possibly make lifelong friends. It builds a sense of camaraderie and empathy and makes for a great break. The ease of access to a range of subjects, in physical form. The impact a learning (and sharing) mindset has on the culture is invaluable.

What’s your advice to people to set up libraries at work?

Every time you are deciding whether or not you should buy a book, the answer is ‘Buy’. Don’t buy books only specific to what your company does. Buy across genres. I can’t think of a better way to promote diversity than this.

Don’t underestimate a reading space and if this space is always full, that’s a good sign.

Lastly, a few titles you've picked up from your library?

When by Daniel H Pink, Impromptu by Reid Hoffman, The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz, World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil and re-reading Demian by Hermann Hesse.

***

Next week, I bring you ways to write poetry and bring it back into our lives. April is National Poetry Writing Month, a chance for us all to tune into that most powerful literary art with a prompt a day.

Until then, Happy Reading.

Sonya Dutta Choudhury is a Mumbai-based journalist and the founder of Sonya’s Book Box, a bespoke book service. Each week, she brings you specially curated books to give you an immersive understanding of people and places. If you have any reading recommendations or suggestions, write to her at sonyasbookbox@gmail.com

The views expressed are personal