The Sunday Haul

Of the half dozen tentative and uncertain New Year resolutions that I’ve made one is regarding my book buying habit. I’ve resolved to buy not more than one book every Sunday at Abids. I’ve too many books occupying every available space in the few rooms of my home. I’ve no further space to put books anywhere hence the resolution to stop buying too many books. One solution to create space for more books is to dispose off the books I no longer want to keep. But the problem is that there are too many books that I am yet to read. So a related resolution is to read all those books that I haven’t read. There are several dozens of books that I’ve been thinking of getting around to reading quite leisurely, especially fat books of the sort written by Stieg Larsson, Umberto Eco, and the like. Last year too I made a similar resolution. I also remember that I had also resolved to read more books by Indian writers but I did not keep the resolution. The only books by Indian writers I’ve read last year are ‘Dork’ by Sidin Vadukut, Chandrahas Choudhury’s ‘Arzee the Dwarf,’ and ‘Jet City Woman’ by Ankush Saikia.

After the break in December I had thought that I’d do reviews of these books and also other books but I feel I’m totally unqualified and also incapable of writing reviews. However I love to read book reviews. I read book reviews as eagerly as I read books though I haven’t read as many reviews as I’ve read books. There’s a peculiar joy to reading well written book reviews. I prefer reading book reviews by intelligent reviewers like Michiko Kakutani, Pico Iyer and such people who open your eyes to new books and new authors.

There are a lot of occasions when I’ve bought books that got good reviews. Rarely have I come across a book review where the reviewer, while actually writing the review of a book, actually trashed (literally) an entirely different book. In this month’s The Literary Review’ supplement in ‘The Hindu’ there’s just such a review. I’ve read random pieces by Anvar Ali Khan earlier in ‘Outlook’ and other publications but this was the first review by him that I read. I found his review of ‘The Gorilla and Other Ways Our Intuition Deceives Us’ absorbing until the last paragraph when he writes about Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘Blink’ which he says belongs to the waste-paper basket. This left a sour taste in my mouth and made me wonder why AAK did not write a separate review of ‘Blink’ instead of rubbishing it in another review.

A few hours after reading that review on Sunday in ‘The Literary Review’ I went to Abids. It was the first Sunday of the year and my first visit of the year to Abids. With the new resolution fresh in my mind I looked carefully for that one book I would have to buy. I wondered which book would be the first haul of the year. I found it not very long after. It wasn’t a fiction book but a very old travel book, a Penguin 1950’s title. Aldous Huxley’s ‘Beyond the Mexique Bay- A Traveller’s Journal’ was my first find of 2011.

‘Beyond the Mexique Bay,’ as it says on the inside cover page, is one of the foremost travel books of the thirties and is also described as one of Huxley’s most entertaining pieces of writing. It is a travelogue of Aldous Huxley’s journey to places across the Mexican Bay. He writes about travelling by ship and road to Antigua, Barbados, Trinidad, Guatamela City, Jamaica, and other places. I was intrigued by the names of some of the other places he wrote about- places with names like Solola, Zacapulas, Momostenango, Etla, Mitla, Cholula and so on. I hope to read this book when I am traveling though the book isn’t in good shape.

‘Beyond the Mexican Bay’ is another addition to my growing collection of travel books. There are still some titles I want to read especially Paul Theroux’s ‘Fresh Air Fiend’ that I foolishly missed picking up a few years ago. I am certain I will find it one day either at Abids or at one of the secondhand bookstores of Hyderabad.