The Year's Haul of Books

This is the haul of books I made during the year. In all I bought a hundred and thirty books which is about fifty books fewer than the previous year. I guess there are far too many books in my house than there are in a small library so I am planning to cut down on book buying in the next year and restrict myself to buying only very good books that I simply cannot avoid buying.

JANUARY

1. ‘Memories of My Melancholy Whores’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
2. ‘Writer’s Digest Handbook of Short Story Writing’ edited by
3. ‘Travel’ by Granta
4. ‘The Artist’s Way’ by Julia Cameron (3rd Copy)
5. ‘Your Own Words’ by Barbara Wallraff
6. ‘Tropical Classical’ by Pico Iyer
7. ‘The Art of Reading the Novel’ by Philip Freund
8. ‘Getting Even’ by Woody Allen
9. ‘From the Mothership’ by Jacquelyn Mitchard
10. ‘Two Women, One Friendship’

FEBRUARY

1. ‘What I Saw at the Revolution’ by Peggy Noonan
2. ‘The Lonely Sea and the Sky’ by Francis Chichester
3. ‘Winesberg, Ohio’ by Sherwood Anderson
4. ‘Dave Barry’s Guide to Guys’ by Dave Barry
5. ‘Goodbye to Gandhi: Travels in New India’ by Bernard Imhasly (New)
6. ‘Getting Things Done’ by David Allen (New)
7. ‘The Writer’s World’ by Linda Woodson
8. ‘Global Soul’ by Pico Iyer

MARCH

1. ‘Radical Forgiveness’ by Colin Tipping (New)
2. ‘Growing Up’ by Russel Baker
3. ‘The Running Life’ by George Sheehan
4. ‘Emperor of Emperors’ by Ryscard Kapuscinski
5. ‘Great Railway Bazaar’ by Paul Theroux
6. ‘A Postillion Struck by Lightning’ by Dirk Bogarde
7. ‘Perils of Pesticides’ by Mukund Joshi
8. ‘Run River’ by Joan Didion – 20/-
9. ‘Thy Neighbor’s Wife’ by Gay Talese- 20/-
10. ‘The Electric Cool Aid’ by Tom Wolfe- 20/-
11. ‘Coffee, Tea or Me’ by
12. ‘The Writerly Life’ by RK Narayan 100/-


APRIL

1. ‘Writing Your Novel’ by Lawrence Block- 100/-
2. ‘Uncivil Liberties’ by Calvin Trillin- 20/-
3. ‘Dave Barry Turns 40’ by Dave Barry (my Nth copy) 10/-
4. ‘Good English’ by Norman Lewis- 10/-
5. ‘National Geographic Guide to Digital Photography’ 150/-
6. ‘News of a Kidnapping’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez- 50/-
7. ‘The Old Gringo’ by Carlos Fuentes- 10/-
8. ‘The Liar’s Club’ Mary Karr- 10/-
9. ‘Writing Clear Paragraphs’- 30
10. ‘Survival Handbook’ – 10/-
11. ‘Blackbird House’ by Alice Hoffman- 10/-
12. ‘Close Range’ by Annie Proulx
13. ‘Writing of One Novel’ by Irving Wallace – 10/-
14. ‘Paro’ by Namita Gokhale- 20/-
15. ‘Writing with Style’ Scholastic- 20/-
16. ‘Out of Sight’ by Elmore Leonard- 10/-
17. ‘She & He’ by Sasthi Brata- 10/-
18. ‘Here Lies Eric Ambler’ by Eric Ambler- 20/-
19. ‘Understand Fiction’ by Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren- 20/-


MAY

1. ‘A Choice of Words’ by David King and Thomas Crerar- 15/-
2. ‘A Year in Provence’ by Peter Mayle (multiple copy)- 15/-
3. ‘Mudrarakshasa: The Hunted’ by Subhash Chandra- 20/-
4. ‘Mr. Stone and the Knight’s Companion’ by VS Naipaul- 10/-
5. ‘Old and New: 18 Stories’ by RK Narayan- 10/-
6. ‘Education of Richard Rodriguez’ by Richard Rodriguez – 10/-
7. ‘The Year of Living Dangerously’ by Sebastian Koch- 10/-
8. ‘Without Feathers’ by Woody Allen- 10/-
9. ‘The Hunted’ by Elmore Leonard- 50/-
10. ‘The Moonshine Wars’ by Elmore Leonard
11. ‘Poona Company’ by Farrukh Dhondy
12. ‘Middle Passage’ by VS Naipaul
13. ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ by Douglas Adams
14. ‘Nose Picking for Pleasure’ by Richard Flickert (yuck, and sorry I had to mention it)


JUNE

1. ‘Strange Adventures of Donald Crowhurst’ by Nicholas Tomlin & Ron Hall
2. ‘Packrat Papers’ Volume- I
3. ‘Vintage Book of Indian Writing’ Ed by Salman Rushdie, Elizabeth West-100/-
4. ‘Touch’ by Elmore Leonard- 10/-
5. ‘Return to Paris’ by Colette Rossant-10/-
6. ‘The Impressionist’ by Hari Kunzru
7. ‘Finally…I’m a Doctor’
8. ‘The Tax Inspector’ by Peter Carey- 10/-
9. ‘Soul of a Chef’ by Michael Ruhlman- 120/-
10. ‘Home and Other Black Holes’ by Dave Barry- 20/-
11. ‘The Men Within’ by Harimohan Paruvu
12. ‘Down and Out in Paris and London’ by George Orwell- 10/-
13. ‘Hali and Other Stories’ by GV Dessani
14. ‘Deep Revision’
15. ‘Collected Essays’ by Graham Greene- 20/-
16. ‘Great Railway Bazaar’ by Paul Theroux- 20/- (2nd Copy of the year)

The second half of the year yielded fewer books than the first six months of the year. Or maybe I picked up fewer books considering that my house was being filled up with books everywhere. Maybe next year I will buy only one book per week or else I may have to buy a bigger house, which looks impossible unless I get a massive advance on my book.

JULY

1. ‘Way to Happiness’-10/-
2. ‘Paperweight’ by Stephen Fry- 90/-
3. ‘I, Gracias’ by Henri Nouwen
4. ‘Dance of the Happy Shades’ by Alice Munro- 40/-
5. ‘Writing Home’ by Alan Bennett- 65/-
6. ‘Mother Tongue’ by Bill Bryson- 65/-
7. ‘The Bookshop’ by Penelope Fitzgerald- 20/-
8. ‘For Love and Money’ by Jonathan Raban- 90/-
9. ‘Rules of Thumb’ by Tom Parker- 10/-
10. ‘Old Ace in the Hole’ by Annie Proulx- 30/-
11. ‘Unknown Man No. 89’ by Elmore Leonard- 15/-

AUGUST

1. ‘The Practical Writer’ eds Therese Eiben and Mary Gannon- 135/-
2. ‘If You Want to Write’ by Brenda Ueland- 100/-
3. ‘How to Write a Movie in 21 Days’ by Vicki King- 100/-
4. ‘Literary Occasions’ by VS Naipaul (New)- 225/-
5. ‘The Shipping News’ by Annie Proulx- 20/-
6. ‘Heavy Water and Other Stories’ by Martin Amis- 20/-
7. ‘Secular Commonsense’ by Mukul Kesavan- 20/-

SEPTEMBER

1. ‘My Year Off’ by Robert McCrum – 50/-
2. ‘Hardboiled Wonderland and End of the World’ by Haruki Murakami
3. ‘Fires’ by Raymond Carver- 50/-
4. ‘Warriner’s English Grammar and Composition- 50/-
5. ‘Kafka on the Shore’ by Haruki Murakami- 100/-

OCTOBER

1. ‘Trading Reality’ by Michael Ridpath- 25/-
2. ‘London Walks’- 30/-
3. ‘Lost Continent’ by Bill Bryson- 10/-
4. ‘Wild Mind’ by Natalie Goldberg- 50/-
5. ‘Groucho and Me’ by Groucho Marx- 20/-
6. ‘Portrait in Sepia’ by Isabel Allende- 20/-
7. ‘Stick’ by Elmore Leonard- 50/-

NOVEMBER

1. ‘Age of Kali’ by William Dalrymple- 55/-
2. ‘Being Indian’ by Pavan K. Verma
3. ‘The Last of the Savages’ by Jay McInerney- 10/-
4. ‘For the Time Being’ by Dirk Bogarde- 50/-
5. ‘Switch’ by Elmore Leonard- 50/-
6. ’84 Charing Cross Road’ by Helene Hanff- 30/-
7. ‘Bachelor Brothers; Bed and Breakfast’ by Bill Richardson 10/-
8. ‘The Art of TS Eliot’ by Helen Gardner- 30/-
9. ‘Behind the Wall’ by Colin Thubron- 90/-
10. ‘In Cold Blood’ by Truman Capote- 10/-

DECEMBER

1. ‘A Writer’s Notebook’ by Somerset Maugham- 75/-
2. ‘Arabia: Through the Looking Glass’ by Jonathan Raban- 25/-
3. ‘Reservoir Dogs’ by Quentin Tarantino- 10/-
4. ‘The Writer and Reader’ by Neil Ewart- 25/-
5. ‘A Year in Provence’ by Peter Mayle- 10/-
6. ‘Hands of a Stranger’ by Robert Daley- 10/-
7. ‘Ordinary People’ by Judith Guest- 10/-
8. ‘The Hotkid’ by Elmore Leonard- 10/-
9. ‘On Writing’ by Stephen King- 100/-
10. ‘At Random’ by Bennet Cerf- 100/-
11. ‘Double Vision’ by Rudy Wiebe- 20/-


Gifts of books I got during the year from my (good) friends:

‘Hombre’ by Elmore Leonard
‘Of Human Bondage’ by Somerset Maugham
‘The Good Earth’ by Pearl S Buck
‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
‘Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff’ by Richard Carlson
‘By the Lakeside’ Garison Keillor