What Do Famous Authors Read?
31 October 2026
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Every book has a journey. Some journeys are longer than the stories inside them.
Our hunt for books takes us across Britain, from Scotland to the Isle of Wight, through charming little bookshops, sprawling book barns, warehouses, library sales and places where books seem to have accumulated over generations.
Some are neatly arranged on shelves. Others wait in cardboard boxes, hoping to be discovered.
For the book hunters of Lanka Books Online, these are not merely places to find books. They are places of discovery, fascinating conversations and unexpected encounters.
And sometimes the conversations are as interesting as the books themselves.
Do Children in Sri Lanka Believe in Fairies?
At an exhibition of fairy tales at the British Library, a little girl asked us a delightful question:
It was an innocent question, but one that opened a fascinating window into how stories travel between cultures.
A fairy in an English woodland may find herself in a different imaginative landscape in Sri Lanka, where children grow up with magical beings, talking animals, mysterious spirits and enchanted adventures.
The characters and landscapes may differ. But the fascination with magic and imagination remains.
Perhaps the little girl was really asking whether children thousands of miles away shared something of her own world.
Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton and Sri Lankan Readers
People we meet in British bookshops, libraries and reading groups are often curious about what Sri Lankans read.
How do Sri Lankan children respond to Roald Dahl? Do they laugh at the same outrageous characters? Does Matilda feel equally at home in Colombo, Kandy or Galle?
Generations of Sri Lankan children have grown up with the Famous Five, Secret Seven and adventures set in a Britain they may never have visited.
The geography may be unfamiliar. The excitement of adventure is not.
One afternoon, in a coffee shop, we met a retired professor who became interested in our book-hunting journeys.
When he discovered that many of our books were destined for Sri Lanka, he asked:
“How do Sri Lankan readers respond to Lee Child?”
What would a reader in Sri Lanka make of Jack Reacher, a character shaped by American highways, small towns and a particular sense of justice?
We found ourselves discussing how the same story can be interpreted differently across cultures.
Yet readers everywhere may share that irresistible urge to turn the next page.
Our journeys introduce us to booksellers, warehouse operators, library workers, volunteers and reading enthusiasts. A conversation beginning with the price of a book can end in a discussion about childhood, literature or the changing world of reading.
One thing we have learned is that responses to books may be individual or cultural, but the feeling surrounding books is remarkably universal.
Call it the atmosphere, the fascination or simply the aura of books.
It is there in a quiet British bookshop. It is there among the crowded shelves of a book barn. And it is there when a child in Sri Lanka opens a book that once belonged to someone in Britain.
The words have travelled. The imagination begins again.
That is the spirit behind Lanka Books Online.
We hunt across Britain for carefully selected English books, from children’s favourites and popular fiction to fascinating non-fiction and unexpected treasures.
We hope to bring Sri Lankan readers more than affordable books. We want to recreate something of the pleasure of browsing a British bookshop: the unexpected discovery, the forgotten favourite, the book you never knew you wanted.
Somewhere in Britain, our book hunters are opening another box.
Somewhere in Sri Lanka, a reader is about to discover another world.
The hunt continues. So do the stories.
Discover something wonderful. Find your next book.
www.lankabooksonline.com
