The Sunday Haul

The weather forecast for the weekend was heavy rain. Though it did not rain on Saturday but Sunday began cloudy and cool. I feared it would rain and I may not be able to go to Abids. It did not rain when I started out yesterday on the pleasant, cool morning for Abids for the weekly book hunt. I had also decided not to buy too many books but ended up buying two books and a magazine. There were more books I missed buying than books I bought.

The first find was a sort of ‘medical humor’ book, ‘Finally…I’m A Doctor’ by Neil Shulman, M.D., I seemed to have read the author’s name somewhere but I picked it up anyway because I got it for only ten rupees and the book too was in good condition, almost brand new. Shulman has authored another book ‘Doc Hollywood’ which has been made into a hit movie, the blurb at the back of the book said. I hope it is a good book.

The next find was a surprise find. It was Peter Carey’s ‘The Tax Inspector’ that I found in a heap of books selling for ten rupees. It was a hard cover edition and I couldn’t believe it when I picked up this almost new, book ‘withdrawn’ from Free Public Library of Water Town, Mass, North Branch according to the stamp on the cover page. It even had the dust jacket and was the first trade edition. I had read Peter Carey’s ‘Illywacker’ long ago and enjoyed his writing.


The next find was the December 2007 issue of ‘Men’s Health’ magazine but more about it later. I got it for only twenty rupees. I also want to write about the books I saw but did not buy for various reasons.

The first such book was one I should have bought because it was by one of my favorite authors- Paul Theroux, and the book was ‘The Imperial Way’. It was a picture book with photographs of a journey from Istanbul to another place I don’t remember now. There were only a few pages of Theroux’s prose and lots of photographs. It wasn’t this that made me give up buying it but the fact that it was priced at three hundred rupees. I left it reluctantly for someone else to pick it up though I know I will find it next week at exactly the same place.

The other book I did not buy was Elmore Leonard’s ‘Rum Punch’ of which I have a copy. There was Peter Mayle’s ‘Toujours Provence’ and also his ‘Chasing Cezanne’, a novel I am hesitating to buy though I have ‘Toujours Provence’. Then I also saw two recent issues of ‘The New Yorker’ magazine of May 2008 but I gave them a miss.