Man has one of world’s largest libraries with over 70,000 books

By SWNS Staff

These pictures show a man who has amassed one of the world's biggest libraries and the largest in his country — made up of over 70,000 books.

Anke Gowda, 72, has collected books for over 50 years in 22 Indian languages and vocabularies from around the world.

It includes religious texts, encyclopedias, dictionaries, fiction, non-fiction - and Shakespeare.

His first book cost him pennies, but he now has the biggest book collection in India.

Gowda displays his eclectic mix at Pustaka Mane in the Sri Anke Gowda Jnaana Pratishtaana at Haralahalli.

It is made up 65,000 international books and magazines, 2,500 titles on Mahatma Gandhi and 2,500 books on Bhagawad Gita.

He also has several hundreds of copies of the Bible and holy books of other religions, encyclopedias, dictionaries, fiction and non-fiction in various national and international languages.

People come from far and wide to look through them.

“Every week, at least a handful of Ph.D. students and research scholars visit ‘Pustaka Mane’ for referral material or to enhance their knowledge,” the collector said.

He buys at least 1,000 books every month from different sources — book shops, publishers and second-hand book-sellers,

Gowda has won numerous awards such as the Rajyotsava Award in 2014, and the G.P. Rajaratnam Sahitya Paricharika Award given by the Kannada Book Authority in 2009.

One of his most prized books is an eight-volume 1832 William Shakespeare collection.

A buyer once offered $149,681 (£110,000) for the set - but Gowda refused to sell.

His astonishing achievement has got him a place into the Limca Book of Records in 2016 under the ‘Largest Personal Book Collection’ category.