Two rooms, one register
Pages Lending Library has been lending books in Chennai since June 2015, and it does that from two rooms. One is open for borrowing this evening. The other is the one it all started in, and it is being renovated.
Open
The lending room, open to members
The room the collection lends from, open to members six evenings a week. Come in, browse the register, and take books out by hand.
Temporarily closed
Head office, and a pickup point by arrangement
The original library, open since June 2015, and still the head office. Temporarily closed to visitors while it is renovated. Members who ask can collect and return books here, and it is where home deliveries are sent from.
The address for Limited Edition is in the first card above, and the part of it to repeat to an auto driver is the Panchamukha Hanuman Temple. The temple is on every map, and the street is short enough that the temple gets you to the door. The Plus Code does the same job if the street address does not.
The room sits between Rajiv Gandhi Salai (OMR) on one side and the Taramani Link Road on the other, which is why most of the places below are one road away rather than a route.
| From | Distance | By car |
|---|---|---|
| Taramani MRTS station | 1.3 km | about 5 min |
| IIT Madras Research Park | 1.5 km | about 7 min |
| Velachery | 2.3 km | about 8 min |
| Perungudi | 2.6 km | about 8 min |
| Kandanchavadi | 3.1 km | about 10 min |
| Tidel Park | 3.3 km | about 11 min |
| Thiruvanmiyur | 3.3 km | about 10 min |
| Adyar | 4.2 km | about 15 min |
Those were measured on a weekday a little after eight in the evening, which is the traffic you will actually be in, and they are the quickest route rather than the one you will get. Taramani MRTS station is the nearest station at 1.3 km, near enough to walk in about fifteen minutes or to finish in an auto in five.
The library opens at six and closes at eight, six evenings a week, and that is not an accident. Taramani is Tidel Park, the IIT Madras Research Park, the CSIR campus, and the offices along Rajiv Gandhi Salai, and for most of the people in them this room is on the way home rather than a journey of its own. If you work here and live somewhere else entirely, that hour is the one to use: borrow something on your way out, and bring it back the same way a week or two later. Borrowing is by hand and takes a minute, so a stop here does not cost you an evening.
If you want to browse the shelves and borrow something, Limited Edition in Taramani is the one, and it is open 6–8 pm, Monday to Saturday. Joining happens there too: bring any photo ID and the membership page explains what it costs.
Madipakkam is where the library began and where its office still is. It is not open for browsing while the renovation is on, so please do not turn up expecting shelves. If you are a member and it is the easier of the two for you, ask and we will leave your books there to collect, or send them out to you. A message on WhatsApp is the quickest way to set that up.
Both rooms lend from the same catalogue, and the story of how one became two is on the about page.