Not even for pay day do I wait as eagerly as I do for the first Sunday of the month. It is the day when ‘The Hindu’ brings with it its ‘The Literary Review’ supplement. This month I did not find anything very interesting in TLR. However, out of habit I read the entire supplement from top to bottom covering the regular columns, the book reviews etc. There was an article by an author who met Orhan Pamuk at the Jaipur Literary Festival. The most interesting article in TLR was the one by Aparna Karthikeyan about a second hand book store (Barter Books) in Alnwick somewhere in the UK that she visited recently.
So on such Sundays after reading TLR I am filled with an unusual excitement as I browse for books on the pavements of Abids that I visit every Sunday. Maybe that was the reason I did not find anything interesting. However, I had seen a memoir of Tobias Wolff (This Boy’s Life) but I did not buy it. Now, after reading the reviews of the book online I feel, as usual, like kicking myself. It seems such a good book that next Sunday, if it is available, I am not going to miss buying it at any cost.
The only find at Abids on Sunday was the January 31, 2011 issue of ‘The New Yorker’ magazine that I got for only ten rupees. One reason why I bought it was that it carried a short story by Alice Munro. I read later in the magazine that Munro had twelve short story collections to her credit and the thirteenth one would be launched next year. After I got home in the afternoon I read the short story titled ‘Axis’ which was about a stone-hearted man and two women living in rural Canada.
TNY wasn’t the only magazine I came across on Sunday. I could have picked up the January 2010 issue of the Conde Nast Traveller but did not. I haven’t finished reading the one I had found last week so I left the Jan 2010 issue for the next Sunday. I don’t think anyone will even think of buying such an old issue so I am pretty confident that I will find it at the same place next Sunday. But what I look forward to find at Abids is Dave Barry's 'I'll Mature When I am Dead' that I read about on Kunal's blog. It is strange but true that you cannot find Dave Barry's titles in a regular bookstore. All Dave Barry books I have I've picked them up only at Abids or in second hand bookstores.
2 comments:
I did buy a Dave Barry at Landmark in Bangalore once. I had found it amazing that nobody read PG Wodehouse or Asterix (going by bookstore inventory) during my stay in the US in the late eighties. By the way, I immensely enjoy reading your blog, though I haven't said so earlier.
I meant bookstores in Hyderabad don't stock Dave Barry's titles. Thanks for the nice words about my blog. Keep reading.
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