The Sunday Haul

For quite a long time I had been wondering who it was who said 'the pen was mightier than the sword.' Last Sunday I read in the Mont Blanc catalog I had found at Abids that it was Edward George Bulwer Lytton who made that statement. So maybe that is why so many people prefer to carry pens rather than swords.

It was not such a big haul this Sunday in terms of number of books but quality wise it was quite a good catch that I netted. I found only one book and one catalog. But both were worth the two and half hours I spent at Abids in the hot neither-monsoon-nor-summer sun. This was the fourth successive week that it hadn't rained in Hyderabad which is causing a lot of worry. First thing, there will be no water to drink soon and already the power cuts have begun. Anyway, there are books to keep away those worries for me.

The first book I picked up was another book of short stories. I had earlier found short story collections by Alice Hoffman and Annie Proulx. This Sunday I found Alice Munro's 'Dance of the Happy Shades' which I got for forty rupees. But I guess the book is worth more than that since Alice Munro is an acclaimed writer. 'Dances...' has the following fifteen short stories: Walker Brothers Cowboy; The Shining Houses; Images; Thanks for the Ride; The Office; An Ounce of Cure; The Time of Death; Day of the Butterfly; Boys and Girls; Postcard; REd Dress-1946; Sunday Afternoon; A Trip to the Coast; The Peace of Utrecht and finally, Dance of the Happy Shades. I was tempted to begin reading but I am saving it for a trip.

The next pick was a catalog of Mont Blanc of 2005, perhaps. It was brand new, unblemished and had 'The Art of Writing' on the blue and red cover. As usual there were fantastic pictures of all the Mont Blanc lovelies beginning with the all time favorite, the Meisterstuck in its various models- Solitaire alone has several models. There was the Georges Solti, the Boheme and the Starwalker. There were pictures of document cases, notepads and pen cases that had me drooling. It was a good find which was another addition to the growing pile of Mont Blanc catalogs.

Of all the other quotations another that caught my eye was the one by Helmut Jahn- 'Creativity has to do more with the elimination of the inessential than inventing something new.'