The Sundays Haul

It should have made me pause, hesitate before taking the decision. The cover of the book and also its general appearance made it something I wouldn't normally buy. But I did not seem to be even thinking right when I spotted the book. The excitement made me forget to do the basic checks, like checking out the pages that I usually do but the Sunday before the last I did not do it. When I heard the guy quote the price, it should have rung a bell in my head but didn’t so I went ahead and picked up the book. It had been something I was waiting to find at Abids ever since I read about the author- Stieg Larsson. The book was ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ and it would be mine for only twenty five pages. Without any more thinking I picked it up along with another book. I was so excited about the haul that I was eager to go home and begin reading the book.

But when I got home I was surprised to find that the last few pages of ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ were missing. My copy of the book ended with 538 pages at the sentence, ‘She smiled a hard smile and steeled herself’ which looked like it wasn’t the last sentence in the book. Though I was disappointed that I had made the sort of mistake beginners make I tried to cheer myself up by looking at the bright side of it. I had 538 pages to read before wondering what to do about finding about the ending. I had the idea that I could go to one of those bookstores like ‘Crossword’ or ‘Landmark’ where chairs are thoughtfully provided for the customers to flip through books before buying them. I plan to read the ending, which I hope is only a few pages long, in a bookstore. I haven’t done anything like that before so I want to try it out this time.

But that wasn’t the only mistake I made the other Sunday. The second book I picked up turned out to be a different title though the author was the same. In the excitement of finding Larsson’s book I forgot to notice that it wasn’t ‘A Short History of Tractors in Ukraine’ by Marina Lewycka that I had picked up. It was ‘We are All Made of Glue’ by the same author that I had bought for twenty five rupees. It doesn’t appear to be a bad buy though because a) it was a Penguin imprint and b) Daily Telegraph’s reviewer’s line on the cover said ‘Had me crying with laughter.’ I hope I am not disappointed with the book.

Last Sunday I picked up yet another issue of Conde Nast Traveller, the April 2008 issue. As usual there were a lot of write ups with pictures of newer places like the Douro Valley in Spain, Quirimbas Islands, Tuscany, Alexandria and many such places in the hefty issue that ran for 224 pages. I was happy that I found it but there was another reason to be happier. Inside, there was a pleasant surprise for me. There was a write up on a landmark hotel in New York called The Royalton which seems to have undergone a total makeover from the dimly lit place it was to something new. A box item in the middle of the article was a piece by my favorite writer, Dave Barry. He had written a piece titled ‘The Black Hole of Manhattan’ in 2002 about his stay in the hotel. It is very, very funny. Here’s a part of Dave Barry’s article:

‘My room had stark, modernistic furniture and several modernistic, low wattage lams which, when I turned them all on, provided the same illumination as a radio dial. The only way to read was to turn the TV on and tune it to a programme with bright colours. My room was strewn with hip items, many of them for sale, including a hotel T-shirt (black), various herbal substances and an ‘Intimacy Kit’ for $12. If they really wanted to make money, they should sell 100-watt light bulbs: I would have considered paying $20 for one. They did sell a candle, labeled ‘TRAVEL CANDLE’, for $15; I thought about buying it and using it in the elevator, to find the ‘Lobby’ button.’

It was classic Dave Barry and made the CNT more than worth the fifteen rupees I spent on buying it.