What kind of books do Indians buy for leisure and learning (not school)?

*This answer has lot of generalisations. The wise will excuse. 1) As other answers have already corroborated, Indians don't buy books generally. They will borrow or sometimes extend their borrowing from a local library. 2) Most passionate readers buy from second hand/Pirated book markets like DN road, Churchgate, JM road, Pune or Koti, Hyderabad. 3) Most of the books are bought after word of mouth publicity. 4) Some like fifty shades are bought, just to be part of global bandwagon of cool. 5) Fountainhead and Khalid Hoseini are bought to impress others. 6) Most buy "big" books and leave them unfinished, gathering dust in some rack of their rooms. 7) But then there are the unaffected readers, they borrow from their friends, finish the collection of their library, download classics that are freely available online these days, waiting till they earn enough to buy their own books, following a life long passion of reading, building their own library book by book. 8) A recent help has been "Just Books" a costly library with multiple city franchise.

I dont mind buying second hand books and some time buy pirated books which are available in road side shops in Colaba, Mumbai. Here Books normally range from 50 to 150,200 each. I earlier used to buy assorted books by various authors but later started buying books by one author at a time. A huge fan of John Grisham and Jeffry Archer coz half my books maybe more are by these two. I also hv books by Indian Authors like Amitav Ghosh and Chetan Bhagat,etc. There are plenty of similar shops in other parts of mumbai as well, but haven't seen any in Bangalore ( People pl suggest if there are any).

Indians are inherently bibliophiles. They like to read anything that has words on it and is understandable. (sadly it is not the case with traffic boards) Now coming back to your questions, 1. I buy some books from "book depots" which are prevalent in Mumbai. 2. Books that are not available in these "Book depots" can be found on streets of churchgate (place in south Mumbai) where street vendors sell books at very reasonable price and they are open to the bargaining. In Delhi, you can find these type of sellers in Chandni Chowk area. 3. I mostly buy second hand academic books, they are easy to give away since most of the times they will be passed on to your juniors. 4. I read all kinds of books which I find interesting. I usually avoid Autobiographies but I like biographies. 5. Any form of book and device is acceptable for me to read. I read "Atlas shrugged" on my phone. 6. I have bought only one ebook on amazon and one on Google books. 7. I read pirated e-books sometimes. (Those which can't be found in Indian niche market) 8. While buying a book, price is very important factor for us. (at least for me) 9. I read books written in english, marathi and sometimes hindi (mostly poetry books) I hope this gives you general idea about reading culture in India (although I don't claim to represent all of the Indians but you get the gist)

You want a general answer, so here goes. I love reading, but I am not enough money to buy nearly enough books to satisfy my thirst. So yes I sometimes buy pirated books too. Scratch that, I have lots of pirated books. Both digital and physical. Digital, well there are lots of websites that offer free ebooks ( most are digital scans of physical books, I prefer not to read them). Most of pirated digital books come from p2p ( torrents ) And if I really love a book, I tend to buy it. Real ( physical ) pirated books are also available ( no certain place though ). If you don't mind bad paper, print quality and you're low on cash and can't keep you're electronics on all the time, then these are a preferable choice. But keep in mind that these books many a times skip a few pages in between. As far as what kind is concerned, depends on the people. there are just too many categories.

Much to my chagrin, Chetan Bhagat. http://www.firstpost.com/india/why-chetan-bhagat-sells-despite-the-mediocrity-tag-417177.html

has efficiently listed almost all the books found on a typical Indian book shelf. I would just like to add Sherlock Holmes to the list.

I have read books by Paulo Coelho J.R.R Tolkein G.R.R. Martin J.K. Rowling Dan Brown Amish Tripathi etc etc I prefer to buy books rather than to borrow or read an E-Book, . Books are my best friends and I don't like the borrowing and returning them.   Also, I prefer to buy original rather than the pirated copy mostly from Flipkart (regular customer, so I get lots of offers). I like the print and crispness of new pages. On an average, I order 3-4 books at a time.   Number of books I have read is shamefully dwarfed compared to the number I want to read.

In my early teens, I used to read only pure fiction (basically only the Harry Potter series and a little bit of Hardy Boys). Now, I read from a very diverse topics. Some of the books I read in the last 6 months The Shiva Trilogy Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins How to read better and faster by Norman Lewis (yes I read a book to help me read faster :p) The art of thinking clearly by Rolf Dobelli The Ineligible bacherlors by Ruchita Misra I am not 24, I am 19 for 5 years by Sachin Garg Don't Lose out, Work out by Rujuta Diwaker Why I am Paying More: Price Theory and Market Structures Made Simple by Satish Y. Deodhar Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines by Rajiv Malhotra and Arvindan Neelakandan(one of the best books I have read) The first three books of Game of Thrones The main criteria I look when I read those books is the reviews. Also, most of the books are priced between INR 100- 500. (GoT series are ebooks). I usually purchase hard-copies from Amazon, and I have a particular liking for Hardbounds over paperback.

Sad enough! Indian youth thinks that "chetan bhagat" novels are the premier work of literature. They are good but indian literature has many great and unexcelled pieces of work. So throw away your phone and indulge in a good book! ARAVIND ADIGA my recommendation! :)