Chennai’s auto-rickshaw drivers are largely notorious for exorbitant fares and reckless driving. So, when one of them hands out books such as Meditation by Osho, or even an outdated edition of Derek O’Brien’s Reference Yearbook , urging you to read them during the ride or even take it home, you naturally wonder if you are being taken for a ride.

But on the contrary, this is part of an innovative promotional scheme called ‘Auto Reads’ launched by iloveread.in, a door-delivery library service operating out of IIT-Madras. The monthly subscription-based service is available in Chennai and Coimbatore, with plans for countrywide franchises.

“We were looking for an inexpensive promotional strategy that would be cool enough. We had placed promotional stickers on autos. Then there were also a huge number of old and not-in-good-condition books that had to be disposed of. In a flash, we decided to distribute those books through auto drivers to the people of the city,” says Kaber Vasuki of iloveread.in. The library’s details are pasted on the back page of the free books.

Spreading the word

Rather than selling the books, “we were looking at doing our bit for society”. Spreading the joy of reading seemed to be the perfect modus operandi .

Following the launch of ‘Auto Reads’ the online library received more than 60 subscription requests from commuters. “Many others called up just to express their delight at reading those books,” says Vasuki. Among them is Shridhar, an elderly gentleman who had long been trying to get hold of an out-of-print Tamil philosophical text. “Imagine discovering it in a Chennai auto,” he exclaims with happiness.

While many of the auto drivers merely handed over the books to commuters, some ended up being bitten by the reading bug. “I have been reading the Krishnapuranam while waiting for commuters,” says S. Arasan, an auto driver involved with Auto Reads.

The library now accepts donated books, and is also looking for a corporate tie-up.

Published on January 24, 2013