This Sunday could be one of the few remaining Sundays when the booksellers would be present in full strength since the festival season is approaching with the Ramzan month only a week away, followed by Dasara, Diwali, Christmas and so on until year end. A few regular shops had already opened for cleaning and painting in anticipation of the festival rush. The usual second booksellers occupying the front of such shops had shifted elsewhere.
It was also a sunny, bright day this Sunday and there was a full crowd browsing through the wares on the pavement. I had come with the plan to buy only one book since there seemed to be more books than clothes or utensils at home. The first book I found was Martin Amis’ ‘Heavy Water and Other Stories’ which, as the title says, was a collection of short stories. The book was in a heap selling for twenty rupees so that was what I paid for it. I had read one of his books long back- The Rachel Papers and enjoyed it very much.
‘Heavy Water and Other Stories’ had nine other stories in it- Career Move; Denton’s Death; State of England; Let Me Count the Times; The Coincidence of the Arts; The Janitor on Mars; Straight Fiction, and What Happened To Me On My Holiday. I hope the stories are good but I picked up the book relying on the Daily Telegraph’s review on the back cover: ‘Amis is immaculate as a comic stylist…irresistible’ and ‘Crackling prose…Heavy Water and Other Stories is highly inventive, inimitably stylish and funny’ by The Times on the front cover of the book.
Though I had decided to buy only one book I couldn’t resist buying a magazine, one that I had not picked up last week- ‘Runner’s World.’ It was absolutely the latest issue being of August 2008, and there was a story by Bill Donahue on Budhia Singh (the Marathon boy) inside. The story was a balanced one and like the mention of our spitting habits in an issue of Conde Nast Traveler I wrote about in a previous post, there’s mention of the peeing habits of Indians. I guess that’s one of the first things that strike visitors to our country.
It was also a sunny, bright day this Sunday and there was a full crowd browsing through the wares on the pavement. I had come with the plan to buy only one book since there seemed to be more books than clothes or utensils at home. The first book I found was Martin Amis’ ‘Heavy Water and Other Stories’ which, as the title says, was a collection of short stories. The book was in a heap selling for twenty rupees so that was what I paid for it. I had read one of his books long back- The Rachel Papers and enjoyed it very much.
‘Heavy Water and Other Stories’ had nine other stories in it- Career Move; Denton’s Death; State of England; Let Me Count the Times; The Coincidence of the Arts; The Janitor on Mars; Straight Fiction, and What Happened To Me On My Holiday. I hope the stories are good but I picked up the book relying on the Daily Telegraph’s review on the back cover: ‘Amis is immaculate as a comic stylist…irresistible’ and ‘Crackling prose…Heavy Water and Other Stories is highly inventive, inimitably stylish and funny’ by The Times on the front cover of the book.
Though I had decided to buy only one book I couldn’t resist buying a magazine, one that I had not picked up last week- ‘Runner’s World.’ It was absolutely the latest issue being of August 2008, and there was a story by Bill Donahue on Budhia Singh (the Marathon boy) inside. The story was a balanced one and like the mention of our spitting habits in an issue of Conde Nast Traveler I wrote about in a previous post, there’s mention of the peeing habits of Indians. I guess that’s one of the first things that strike visitors to our country.
2 comments:
can vouch for the book, vinod. it's excellent. and you're very lucky to have found rachel papers. it's not easily available anywhere - not even at the brit lib.
Thanks you, SS. I feel privileged you read this blog, and honored that you comment on my posts.
I can lend you RP if you haven't read it already. My mail ID appears somewhere on the top of the home page.
Thanks once again. Keep visiting the blog.
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