A BOOK FILLED SUNDAY

Yesterday was packed with books and book related stuff- ‘The Literary Review of The Hindu’ in the morning and the visit to Abids later in the day, and then in the evening it was ‘Just Books’ on television.

‘The Literary Review’ in ‘The Hindu’

Sunday began with a minor drama.

When I opened the door I saw that the newspaper had delivered the wrong newspaper instead of ‘The Hindu’ for which I was eagerly awaiting. An hour later when I finished reading the paper he had wrongly delivered (a bonus), he came back with ‘The Hindu’.

Literary Review featured Vaiju Naravane’s interview with Indra Sinha on the front page. Also on the front page was Hasan Suroor’s analysis of the short-listed authors and their books and his prediction of the likely winner of the Booker Prize.

There was more inside including a review of Sree Vatsan’s ‘A Countryside Album’ that I too had read after buying it at its launch here in Hyderabad a couple of month's back.

More about this month’s Literary Review of The Hindu in subsequent posts but now to the books I found at Abids yesterday.

AT ABIDS: TWO BOOKS AND A CATALOG

The first book I found was Peter Taylor’s ‘A Summons to Memphis’. This was the third copy of the book I was buying and today’s copy was a hardcover edition ( A Borzoi Book of Alfred A Knopf) where as the earlier two copies were paperbacks that I had bought last year. I got this hardcover for only twenty rupees in the lane that houses the Bommana Brothers store. I pick up extra copies of such good books to give away to friends. But I haven’t read it since it is one of the books on the list of books I plan to read someday in solitude somewhere on a secluded beach. Ha Ha.

The second find of the day was Alan Judd’s ‘The Devil’s Own Work’ which I got for only twenty rupees. It is a slim book not more than 91 pages. I haven’t read about this writer but I had a hunch it would be a good book so I bought it. It was also on the cover page that it was the ‘Winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize’ so that probably influenced my decision to pick this book up.

The final and the most interesting find of the day was yet another beautiful Mont Blanc catalog. It was titled ‘Feelings’- One Hundred Years of Mont Blanc. It was in a different format like a magazine, unlike the other catalogs I have with me. Inside was some truly inspiring stuff especially the pictures of a fountain pen being lovingly crafted. More about the catalog in another post this week.

‘Just Books’ on NDTV Profit

Another book related event I await on Sundays is the program on books, perhaps the only program on books on television in India. It is ‘Just Books’ on NDTV Profit hosted by Sunil Sethi. It is telecast sometime during the week but I prefer watching it at half past six on a Sunday evening.

In yesterday’s show there was an interview of Namita Devidayal who has written ‘The Music Room’. Then there was some news about India’s first literary agency- The Red Ink Literary Agency. Anuj Bahri is the CEO of this agency which must be exciting news for Indian writers. Sometime back I had read ‘Osian’ is also into this business. How they fare only time will tell.