Thursday, July 24, 2008

A Single Book Midweek Haul- Jonathan Raban



Tuesday afternoon turned out to be one of those days I had nothing better to do other than twiddle my thumbs. Having pushed all the files on my table ( I work for the government) as far up as I could I was feeling restless without any thing interesting to do. It was around four in the afternoon, the perfect time to have a cup of hot Irani tea. So I hatched a plan to spend an hour in a book store and then having chai. I slipped out of the office and went to a bookstore I haven’t visited for quite a while. The person in the bookstore remarked about my long absence as soon as I stepped in.

Now, when I am in a bookstore I am completely transformed. I become totally alert, eyes scanning the shelves for the titles that are on my mental list of ‘must buys.’ After a couple of minutes I chanced upon a book by a writer I had heard quite a lot while reading about travel and travel writing- Jonathan Raban. In a corner of the shelf was ‘For Love & Money’ by Jonathan Raban.

I flipped through it and found that it was a sort of memoir of his ‘Reading, Writing and Travelling’ during the period 1968-1987. Reading, writing and traveling are precisely the things I too love to do and without a second thought I bought it for ninety rupees though I was sort of saving up to buy ‘Sea of Poppies’ by Amitav Ghosh on Thursday. I hoped I would have enough to last the month but this book I had to buy and buy I did. I then left to have the Irani chai while leafing through the book I just bought.

On the back it says that ‘For Love and Money’ is the ‘part case history, part memoir’ of a modern man of letters: a selection of Jonathan Raban’s best essays, reportage, travel writings and literary criticism, linked with a narrative thread that bravely attempts the agonizing and revelatory question ‘why do you write?’

I had netted a gem I realized by picking up ‘For Love and Money’ because it is just the sort of book I love to read- about writing and writers. I returned to my office glad about the midweek’s haul. It was just the sort of afternoon any book lover would love to spend happily, hunting for and finding a good book.





I am trying to put a picture of the cover of the book that I took with my digital camera. If it appears here then I have succeeded in transferring the image from camera to the computer which I haven’t yet learnt though it is more than two years since I bought the camera at the Andamans.

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