The Sunday Haul- It All Adds Up

It All Adds Up Somehow

Not surprisingly, for someone who loves books I developed the habit of jotting down the titles of books others have written about so I too could read and enjoy them. But had I also jotted down the book where I had come across the title I would have now known where it was I had read about Saul Bellow’s ‘It All Adds Up’ that I found last Sunday. I wasn’t exactly expecting to find the book and I wasn’t also looking for it but the title was familiar to me since I go through my notebooks frequently. I had jotted down about Saul Bellow’s book nearly ten years ago and I found it last Sunday at Abids.

‘It All Adds Up’ is Saul Bellow’s first non-fiction collection. I find it fascinating to read writers discussing their writing and also books by other writers. ‘It All Adds Up’ promises to be a good read judging from the contents which range from essays on other writers and literature to pieces that are travelogues on places as diverse as Chicago and Tuscany. I feel quite fortunate finding the hardcover, almost-new copy for just fifty bucks at Abids when it could have been easily priced at three or four hundred rupees by a shrewd seller. The other happy thing was that it was a First Edition! It was the best find of the year so far.

I flipped through the book and couldn’t help reading a couple of pieces. In the preface I came across another literary autobiography of a writer who Saul Bellow mentioned that he read again and again- Wyndham Lewis’ ‘Rude Assignment.’ While reading Bellow’s prose I felt embarrassed calling myself a writer, writing as I am this sort of trifling (and inane, I might add) stuff. His’ was knock-down prose and no wonder he got the Nobel Prize and also the Pulitzer. If they were handing out awards for picking up good books then I guess I would have got one for finding ‘It All Adds Up’ on the pavement.

Two things I love to read about are cooking and running though I have never emerged out of the kitchen with anything more complicated than a cup of tea, and preparing tea cannot be called as cooking by any account. I had also not run for more than a few yards in my life and that too when I was young. Interestingly, I had seen a book on running ‘The Courage to Start’ only last week at a second hand bookstore but was put off by the price. It was priced at ninety five bucks which I felt was too much for the book with slightly stained pages. So it was quite a surprise to see the same copy in a heap of books selling for just ten rupees. Needless to say, I picked it up. It was by John ‘The Penguin’ Bingham.

‘The Courage to Start’ is all about how the author began to run to make sense of his life and those of others. The author John Bingham writes a column ‘The Penguin Chronicle’ for a popular running magazine ‘Runner’s World’ and also has a website. I had picked up a few such magazines in the past and I wonder if I ‘Runner’s World’ is among them. Someone used to write one such column in ‘The Hindu’ every Sunday which was quite interesting. Nowadays it isn’t appearing. I guess those who take up running never ever give it up. Some day I too plan to begin the habit of running.

Next Post on Friday: Another Milestone