The Sunday Haul- Five Books and a Magazine

It was a nice haul of five books and another travel magazine that I came up with last Sunday. Three out of the five books I found were by Penguin which made it quite a qualitative haul considering the fact that two were collections of short stories. The first Penguin and also the first book I found on Sunday was a book of short stories by an author I had not heard of before. I picked it up on a whim and it turned out to be quite a good book. The book was ‘Goodbye Harold, Good Luck’ by Audrey Thomas. I found it in a pile of books heaped on the pavement near Dayal’s store. In the same pile I found the second Penguin that had a curious connection with Audrey Thomas’ book. It was Edward Hoagland’s ‘African Calliope; A Journey to the Sudan’ which was mine for only twenty rupees. As the title suggests it is a travel book and somehow I am very intrigued by Africa. My first book of Paul Theroux was ‘Dark Star Safari’ that I borrowed from the British Library. Nothing in Africa is boring I guess.

The next find was Lawrence Block’s collection of stories titled ‘Some Days You Get the Bear’ at another place. I haven’t read any of Block’s books except one his book on writing ‘Writing the Novel: From Plot to Print’ that I found very interesting. The next find was a bestseller and also a Penguin book. It was Mohsin Hamid’s ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ that I did not expect to find at all as a second hand copy, least of all at Abids. It was a good copy and I was glad I found the book and gladder still that I got it for only fifty rupees. I had just then reached the joint where I take my tea break. Sipping the Irani I flipped through the books and came across something I thought was quite coincidental. In the first story (Elevation) that I quickly read in Audrey Thomas’ book were two words I did not know the meaning of. The first was ‘sessile’ and the second word was ‘calliope,’ the same word that is on the title of the other Penguin that I found. It wasn’t exactly an earthshaking coincidence but I found it quite odd. I was also glad that I picked up Audrey Thomas’ book of short stories. If the first short story was anything to go by it promises to be a fantastic read.

James A Michener has written a number of books and only a few of them are less than three hundred pages I guess. All his books are tomes that take a long time to finish if one has the patience to sift through all the details he provides. With a penchant for penning such bulky books it isn’t such a surprise that his memoir is no less a tome. At 520 pages James A Michener’s ‘The World is My Home’, is quite a weighty book. This is my second copy of the book that has some fascinating stuff. I had read only the section where he gives an account of his writing. It is quite an instructive chapter coming from a diligent and hard working writer. The best thing was that I found the hardcover edition of more than five hundred pages for only twenty rupees. Only the jacket was torn here and there but otherwise the book was in excellent condition.

The only magazine I picked up on Sunday was the May/June 2003 issue of ‘National Geographic Traveler’ which, as the cover said, was a ‘Special Collector’s Issue.’ It is because it lists out ‘101 great food & travel experiences’ of the world. Unfortunately, no place in India makes it to the list. Too bad no one in NGT has tasted the biryani out here.