Book Hunter Strikes Again

BOOK JUNKIE: Book Hunter Strikes Again

One reason I'm glad I live in Hyderabad is that it is a kind of paradise to all those who eat, drink and live books. Over the years I’ve picked up scores of books from the pavements of Abids at dirt-cheap prices. In the previous posts I had written about the books I picked up last week at Abids, and also at the book sale at YWCA. This Sunday too I struck treasure at Abids. In all I picked up four good books of big name authors for just sixty rupees this Sunday.

First I found Anne Tyler’s ‘If Morning Ever Comes’ in a heap of books selling for ten rupees. I had read her ‘Accidental Tourist’ and was enchanted by her writing sufficiently enough to go picking up all her books.

Moments after I picked this book I noticed another that gave me a pleasant shock. It was Paul Theroux’s ‘To the Ends of the Earth’, which is a collection of pieces from his other travel books like Great Railway Bazaar, Sunrise with Sea Monsters, Kingdom by the Sea, Riding the Iron Rooster, etc. The really surprising bit was that this book was in a heap of books being sold for twenty rupees. The book was in a good condition and was exactly like the copy I had given to a friend when I was in Port Blair last year. It wasn’t the same copy though!

The next find was Carson McCullers’ ‘Ballad of the Sad Café and other Stories’ that I got for only ten rupees. The book has the novella of the same title and six other stories. I’m yet to read any book by her but I read reviews that praised her first book, ‘The Heart is a Lonely Hunter’ which is my next target.

But it was the one book I found at the end of the trip that really made the trip worthwhile. It was Natalie Goldberg’s ‘Long Quiet Highway; Waking up in America’. I got this almost new, hardcover for just twenty rupees. Twenty rupees for an unread, almost new hardcover book with a dustjacket ! Where else in the world would one get such good books at rock bottom prices? In book lovers paradise- My Hyderabad.