It wasn’t in my normal Sunday mood (eager anticipation) that I set out for Abids. Something had happened the night before that upset me a great deal. It was with a sense of loss that I arrived at Abids hoping I wouldn’t find anything I’d be compelled to buy. Even though I looked around distractedly the first book I saw was a book I couldn’t let remain on the pavement. It was Peter Matthiessen’s ‘The Snow Leopard’ which I have already read twice, maybe thrice. Though I have two copies of this book I had another reason to pick this copy. The guy asked for only ten rupees for it which I felt was a ridiculous price for a book that had more than three hundred fifty pages and was a classic to boot. The guy did not have any idea about the book so I took it. There is someone I have in mind who might like to read the book.
I did not pick up the next book the first time I saw it. I went away leaving it behind after the guy quoted what I thought was a very high price. The book was ‘The Writer Observed’ by Harvey Breit. It was a collection of talks (not exactly interviews) the author had with several well known writers like Somerset Maugham, Ernest Hemingway, Conrad Aiken, Carl Sandburg and fifty or more other writers. I went away and picked up the second book which was a science fiction book. I normally do not read Science Fiction but I had come across the name of Harlan Ellison so many times that I wanted to find out myself if his books were any good. ‘Approaching Oblivion’ by Harlan Ellison is a collection of eleven of his previously unpublished sci-fi stories. The book had an introduction by Michael Crichton and I got it for only ten rupees.
Later, I went back and picked up ‘The Writer Observed’ for forty rupees. There’s Somerset Maugham in it saying, ‘…even when a thing is difficult, if you are a writer you are never so happy as when you are writing.’ It isn’t always the case I must say though writing is one thing that makes me happy but I cannot say the same thing about the people who read it judging from the number of people who come to this blog!
Anyway, the most interesting find of the day was a magazine. It was the latest issue (May ’09) of the American men’s magazine, ‘Esquire’ that I got for only twenty bucks. I don’t much think about the men’s magazines in India which are mere copies of similar magazines abroad. They seem to have more number of photographs than articles which is another thing that puts me off. Back home I leafed through this original American edition and came across a lot of interesting stuff but the most interesting thing was reading about Elmore Leonard’s newest book- Road Dogs. I have to be on the look out for this book though not at Abids where it isn't likely to show up for another decade at least.
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