A Year of (Buying) 200 Books

Yesterday I got lucky, real lucky, at the Book Fair. I found four good secondhand books and two of them were books I was looking for high and low. The first book was Sunil Khilnani’s ‘The Idea of India’ which I got for fifty rupees.The second book was a new book by Elmore Leonard- The Big Bounce, also for fifty rupees.

I found the third and the most important book of the day almost by accident. It was in a stall of a Mumbai based secondhand book seller- Vivek’s. I asked the guy if he had any books on fountain pens. He stood up and took out a huge tome from a rack in a corner. It was a coffee table book of nearly two hundred pages and quite big. My heart gave a start when I saw the title which was Cartier- Creative Writing by Francois Chaille. I wanted to buy it at any cost.

The sticker read Rs 375 but I got it for only Rs 325 which is far far less than what it is worth. The book has fabulous pictures of Cartier writing instruments and I think it is a real treasure. It is one of the best finds of the year. The book is published by Flammarion in 2000. I have another book "Collectible Fountain Pens' by the same publisher.

Anyway, I was truly happy with this delightful find. A little later while browsing in the same stall I found Jack Kerouac’s ‘On the Road’ which I have been looking out for ever since I had read somewhere that it is a cult classic. The book was a Penguin edition and I got it for a hundred and thirty rupees. This is another fabulous find.

I returned home happy with the haul and I realized that with these four books the tally of books that I have bought this year now stands at 200! It is some sort of a minor personal record for me. I have never bought so many books in a year. Last year I had bought around 180 books. I think it is high time I stop buying any more books and buy only the really good books.

Next year I will be really choosy about my books and I will try to concentrate on reading all the books I have bought so far, and also do a bit more writing. But I have been telling this to myself since several years but have never followed it. I forget my resolution not to buy any more books the moment I enter a book store.