BOOK JUNKIE: Natalie Goldberg and Linda Greenlaw

Book Sale Begins

As announced, Best Book Centre’s book sale opened at YWCA on Friday. I went there in the evening and spent over two hours looking at the thousands of titles displayed. There were books on management, finance, self-help, fitness and health, gardening, photography, writing, children’s books, the classics and the latest bestsellers in fiction and non-fiction.

As for me, being a sucker for books on writing I picked up Natalie Goldberg’s ‘Writing Down the Bones’ (70/-) and another book called ’30 Days to More Powerful Writing’ by Jonathan Price for 95 rupees. This book was bigger in format like a coffee table book and appeared to be quite good. I did not see Dorothea Brande’s “ On Becoming a Writer” that I had missed buying in the previous sale.

I also saw Paul Theroux’s ‘Sunrise with Sea Monsters’ but I did not pick it up as I already have a copy. I saw his ‘Milroy the Magician’ also. In another section I picked up Linda Greenlaw’s ‘All Fishermen are Liars’ for forty rupees. I have her second book- The Lobster Chronicles but it is her first book ‘Hungry Ocean’ that I am hunting for.

I saw books by Anne Tyler, Annie Dillard, Anita Shreve, Joyce Carol Oates and so on… I had a limited budget so I picked up only these few books. I also saw Arthur Miller’s autobiography- Timebends- but it was a huge tome and cost a bomb. I had also seen a book of essays by Umberto Eco but I let it go.

I had also picked up another book by Hollywood writers- ‘The First Time I Got Paid for It’ for 95 rupees. The foreword was by William Goldman. There were only a few script-writers I recognized- Lawrence Kasdan and Nikolas Kazan but I hadn’t heard of the other names but that maybe because I don’t watch many movies. (My last movie was Diehard 4.)

I also picked up another book on writing - A Short Guide to Writing About Literature’ for 125 rupees. It seemed good enough with several hundred pages of lessons on how to read a book critically, take notes etc, and write a sensible book review. I bought only these five books but the bill came to four hundred and twenty five rupees. The prices this time seemed to be higher

The person at the counter told me there would be fresh stocks in a couple of days and asked me to visit again. I will go there sometime after Monday and pick up some more books. Maybe I won’t calm down until I buy more books in this sale which will be on until the 15th.