The Sunday Haul, Etc.,

Almost all the Sunday second hand booksellers at Abids have fixed spots in front of closed shops where they display and sell their books. Most of the biggies are to be found in the Hollywood Shoes lane where they are protected from the rain. But in the festival season when the regular shops open their shutters these booksellers move to other places. On Sunday (22 August) I felt a bit disoriented at not finding the books or the booksellers at their regular spots on the pavements at Abids. Coincidentally, I did not also come across any title worth picking up. Last Sunday I had seen a book that I wanted to buy this Sunday. It was a sort of travelogue by a mother coming to India to meet her estranged daughter. The book sounded interesting but I have forgotten its title already. The book was not to be seen and I wonder if anyone has picked it up.

But at Chikkadpally where I bought Raymond Chandler’s ‘The Simple Art of Murder’ last Sunday I found another interesting book. It was ‘How to Placate An Angry Naga’ by an IAS couple- Leela Nandan and Jiwesh Nandan. It seemed an interesting Penguin title so I bought it though the person asked for fifty rupees for it. One doesn’t get to read many books by IAS officers because not many write them or maybe they don’t get the time to write them. All books especially second hand books come with their own bookmark. The book I found had a bookmark made of a thin folded strip of paper with a girl’s name written in red on it. I hope the book is interesting because I found the bookmark stuck somewhere in the middle of the book indicating the previous owner may not have read through the entire book. The only book by an IAS officer that I enjoyed reading was the cult classic ‘English August’ by Upamanyu Chatterjee.

One doesn’t get to read ‘Time’ magazine in many places in Hyderabad but I happened to read a latest issue just days ago. A couple of days ago I happened to be visiting Jubilee Hills as a trainee at Dr. MCRHRD Institute. During the lunch break I dropped in at the Institute’s library where I chanced on ‘Time’ which had novelist Jonathan Franzen on the cover. I read Lev Grossman’s article on Franzen and was tempted to read the novelist’s books. One of them ‘The Corrections’ which is said to have sold 2.8 million copies world wide and his second novel ‘Freedom’ is due this week. I also came upon the interesting information that only a few writers have made it to the cover of ‘Time’ magazine. JD Salinger is one among the handful of writers like John Updike, Vladimir Nabokov, James Joyce, and Toni Morrison, to have graced the cover of the magazine. One day I expect to see Elmore Leonard on the cover of ‘Time.’

Since I was in Jubilee Hills, on the way back home from the training, I visited Odyssey as it had been quite a long time since my last visit. I was surprised to see a brand new Jaguar parked in the ground floor of Odyssey where previously other stuff was displayed. I looked up to find that Jaguar Motors had decided to open a showroom in Jubilee Hills. Since I wasn’t very interested in looking up a Jag I made my way up to the bookstore. I saw more than sixty issues of ‘Granta’ displayed right behind the cashier on the first floor. Half a dozen issues were on Travel, and Travel Writing that I could have bought but for the steep price. But one book that I am going to buy very soon is Joan Didion’s ‘The Year of Magical Thinking.’ I made up my mind to buy it after reading the first few pages. It is a poignant account of Didion’s grief after the sudden death of her husband while at dinner in their house.