Bengal Boi
The Friendly Bookstore & Cafe

Bengal Shilpalay, Dhanmondi; Dhaka

Bengal Boi began its journey as a bookstore and community space in November 2017, at Lalmatiya to stimulate creativity, encourage readership, to ignite the love for learning among readers of all ages. It is a part of the Bengal Foundation, an organization dedicated to the promotion of arts and culture in Bangladesh.

In 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic was over, it moved to the building of Bengal Shilpalay Dhanmondi.

Bengal Boi’s half ground floor features an open lawn where guests of all ages can enjoy a relaxing chat with friends and family as well as read from its library of books and magazines with free access for all. The other half of the ground floor showcases the main bookstore, where it hosts a diverse collection of both local and international publications and books for sale. 

Bengal Boi retails all fan favorites but boasts a heavily curated collection of quality publications on literature, art, music, architecture, history, and many more subjects. Its collection also highlights contemporary and translated works of distinguished Bengali authors.

Most of the middle portion is dedicated to younger visitors. It’s full of various local publications books too. The good part of Bengal Boi is, it has a reading corner where anyone can read the bookstore’s books for free.

A glimpse of Bengal Boi’s collection–

• The Great Padma-Published by ORO Editions (San Francisco) and Bengal Institute, and edited by Kazi Khaleed Ashraf, with a preface by Amitav Ghosh
• Great Masters Of Bangladesh Series by SKIRA
• The Vibrant Architecture- Scene of Bangladesh by Bengal Stream
• Vastukatha: Selected Sayings of Architect Muzharul Islam
• Locations: An Anthology of Architecture and Urbanism 01
• A Wistful Existence
• Antonin Vacek by Samia Tamrin Ahmed
• The Unforgiving City and I’ – Collection of poems by Aahir Mrittika

For the comic and pop culture fans in Dhaka, it has a library of Marvel and DC comic books as well as graphic novels which were donated by Ahmed Bhuiyan after his passing. You can easily read those through a simple membership.

The children’s section features a variety of engaging books for young readers, on the other hand, In this section you will find stationeries with various collectibles.

Kids Zone, Bengal Boi

The first floor features a café and balcony where you can have coffee as well as fast-food items. You can visit Bengal Boi for breakfast on weekends and public holidays. 

Just beside the café, you will find the Bengal Art Gallery where the Bengal Foundation hosts art exhibitions with various prominent artists.

Bengal Boi frequently hosts music and poetry recitals, reading sessions for book launches and film screenings. The combination of books and stimulating conversations make Bengal Boi a unique institution not only in the city of Dhaka, but also in Bangladesh.

Written by

Rusaya Binta Amin

Email- rusaya.amin@gmail.com

Curator of the #BangladeshiLitMonth at Global Literature in Libraries Initiative:

Erin Wilson currently works as a Teacher Librarian at International School Dhaka, Bangladesh and has worked internationally for 10 years in the following countries; China, India, and now Bangladesh. She has vast experience working in diverse cultures from Native American students to inner-city students and the international community. Her other passion lies in studying Asian dances. Currently she is focused on Odissi classical dance, and uses this dance vocabulary for storytelling in the library to actively engage children. It’s never boring in the library. 

You can follow the school where she works, International School Dhaka Instagram: @ isd_library

Opinions expressed in posts on this site are the individual author’s and are not indicative of the views of Global Literature in Libraries Initiative.