Book Reading

BOOK READING ; ‘COUNTRYSIDE ALBUM' by Sree Vatsan on 22-7-07

In Hyderabad book readings usually take place in posh hotels when the author is a big name and are, normally, evening affairs. But if it is a new author or a smallish publisher then the venue is a book store. A friend told me about the book reading of ‘Countryside Album’ written by Sree Vatsan on Sunday, the twenty second of July.

So I went last Sunday to Askhara, Marredpally at eleven in the morning. It was an unusual time (Sunday at eleven in the morning?) to hold a book reading but nevertheless the bookstore was packed. There seemed to be an unusual number of Malayalis swarming all over the place and I knew the reason later when the reading began. (The book is set in Kerala.)

The Commissioner of Police, Sri. Balvinder Singh IPS, and the award winning film director K.Vishwanath were the guests of honor.

The author, Sree Vatsan is a Deputy Editor at The Hindu in Hyderabad and ‘Countryside Album’ is his first book. He told or rather read out to the gathering his speech and informed us that it was the first speech of his life which drew some amused giggles.

Also, the Commissioner of Police praised the author as a bold person for writing the book from a woman’s viewpoint. Sri Balvinder Singh is a Post Graduate in English Literature and hence his interest in such literary events.


The members of ‘The Little Theatre’ led by the inimitable Shanker Melkote read out from the book. They went on reading chapter after chapter, one after the other and for some time it appeared like they were going to read the entire book thus sparing us the bother of buying it. However, they seemed to have stopped just before the last chapter. Later people queued up to get the book signed by the happy author. I was one in the queue.

The book is published by Sunbun Publishers, New Delhi and is priced at Rs.150.

BBC BOOK FAIR COMING UP

Best Book Center (BBC!) the chain of second hand bookstores is holding a second hand book sale from August 3 to 15 at YWCA, Secunderabad. They hold such a sale atleast three times a year. The usual venue is the YMCA, Secunderabad but this time the sale is at YWCA.

For all those who don’t know where the YWCA is, it is near St.Andrews School, Secunderabad. Take the road to the Picket Bus Stand from YMCA, turn right at a median and enter a lane between the church and a temple. Then turn to the left. YWCA is on the left after St.Andrews school.

It is a big sale with thousands of books- fiction, non-fiction, management, self-help, health and children’s books- to be grabbed. The prices are reasonable. You can get hard cover editions of bestsellers in fiction and other genres. The books are in good condition and most of them are almost brand new.

Half the books in my collection I picked up either from this sale or their two stores at Lakdikapul and Abids. I picked up William Goldman’s ‘Adventures in the Screen Trade’ in one such sale a couple of months ago. I also found the fourth edition of ‘The Elements of Style’. It was a brand new paperback copy and I got it for seventy bucks. If you love books then drop in there during the first few days.



SUNDAY BOOK HUNT: FINDING A TREASURE AT ABIDS BOOK BAZAAR

Maybe it was the looming Full Moon day but I got lucky again this Sunday ( the 29th of July) at the Abids book bazaar. I found three good books, books I had been looking for since ages. Yesterday I found them quite unexpectedly. This month has been a good one in terms of good books found. These are the books I found this Sunday.

THE ART OF WRITING by GRENVILLE KLEISER

I had read about this book in a library catalogue and being a sort of writer always looking for books on writing I had noted down this title somewhere in a notebook and forgot all about it. Yesterday I found a small postcard sized book with a black colored hardcover that had the title inscribed on it- The Art of Writing. Inside, the name of the author was given- Grenville Kleiser.

It was an old book and looked like it had been printed in the 1950’s or even earlier. I was eager to see if it was a first edition but all the front pages were missing. Mercifully, all the articles including the last pages were intact.


Inside there were nine essays on reading and writing but two essays caught my eye. One was Poe’s ‘The Philosophy of Composition’ which I had read about in David Morrell’s book ‘Lessons from a Lifetime of Writing’. The other was Herbert Spencer’s essay ‘Philosophy of Style’ an example from which is given in Strunk and White’s writing classic ‘The Elements of Style’.

The surprise was the price- I got the book for only fifteen rupees.


FINDING 'A YEAR IN THE WORLD' by FRANCES MAYES

But some more luck seemed to be in store for me. Near the spot where Arose Café once stood I saw a stack of hardcover books piled high against a wall one upon the other. I tilted my head to read the titles and one title caught my eye. It was ‘A Year in the World’ by Frances Mayes. The seller took out a copy (there were two copies) and handed it to me. It was a brand new copy but
had no dust jacket. I had read about this book while searching for reviews of ‘Under the Tuscan Sun’ on Amazon. I bought both copies for sixty rupees. The second copy is for a friend who also likes to read Mayes’ books.



... AND 'ACQUIRED TASTES' by PETER MAYLE


I walked away pleased with my find when I chanced upon a row of books on sale for ten rupees only in the lane near Dayal's. I found another good title there. It was by another writer I liked to read- Peter Mayle and the book was ‘Acquired Tastes’.

The book is a collection of pieces published in GQ and Esquire, the men's magazines. It was originally published as 'Expensive Habits' in Great Britain. The essays in it are about the upper class men and their luxurious lifestyles, their expensive habits and indulgences, and are written in a witty style.

I bought 'Acquired Tastes' for just ten rupees. It was a most lucky Sunday for me what with the haul of three good books.

More about these books in later posts.