THE MIDWEEK AND SUNDAY HAUL

A Midweek HaulLast Friday when I dropped in at Crossword in the City Center Mall at Banjara Hill for a book launch I spotted a book that I felt I had to buy. It was Ryszard Kapuscinski’s ‘The Cobra’s Heart’ that was incongruously placed among self help books. ‘The Cobra’s Heart’ is an extract from ‘The Shadow of the Sun’ which anyway I may not find so I planned to buy it before I began to have second thoughts. My heart wouldn’t quite calm down until I bought ‘The Cobra’s Heart’ for a hundred and sixty five rupees. It was No 20 on the Penguin Great Journeys list at the back of the book which meant there are nineteen other books I have to buy.

The Find on SundayRecently I read somewhere that fans of a character called ‘Jack Reacher’ in Lee Child’s books were disappointed that Tom Cruise was playing the role. It got me wondering who Lee Child was and why I had never heard of him or his books though it was apparent he was a bestselling crime fiction author. The name sort of stuck in the mind. On Sunday I was walking around at Abids trying not to buy anything when my eyes fell on the name ‘Lee Child’ on the cover of a book. The book was Lee Child’s ‘Worth Dying For’ the latest in the Jack Reacher series it seems but the price of a hundred bucks put me off. Plus there was this self-imposed ban on buying books that I have not been serious about since the past couple of weeks. Anyway, I walked away only to return but after finishing going around and ended up buying ‘Worth Dying For’ for a hundred rupees.

Etc., I first spotted ‘The River of Smoke’ while I was browsing in a second hand bookstore at Punjagutta earlier in the week. ‘The River of Smoke’ is the second book in Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis trilogy. Like ‘Sea of Poppies’ ‘The River of Smoke’ too seems to be quite a long book going by its size though I couldn’t tell how many pages it ran to since it was encased in plastic. I had read somewhere that the book would be launched in June so I was not very surprised to see it. But I was sure surprised to find it in a second hand bookstore.

At Crossword on Friday when I went for the book launch, I found several copies of ‘The River of Smoke’ in a special display. I’ll wait until Amitav Ghosh comes to Hyderabad for the launch which I hope he does. But I may have to wait for a couple of months before that happens. Now that the book is out, it is Amitav Ghosh everywhere. There was a lengthy interview in the Deccan Chronicle on Sunday that I read at Adarsh after my Necklace Road routine. The Crest edition of Times of India too carried a write up on Amitav Ghosh and ‘The River of Smoke.’ I just managed to catch the final moments of Sunil Sethi’s interview with Amitav Ghosh on ‘Just Books’ on Saturday evening. I had hoped it would be repeated on Sunday night but unfortunately it wasn’t.

Spotting a Possible BestsellerOn Friday, apart from Kapuscinski’s ‘The Cobra’s Heart’ I saw another book that I felt could be a good read. The book was ‘Ours are the Streets’ by Sunjoy Sahota which, from what I read of the first few paragraphs, sounds like a very good book. There’s a certain edginess to the writing that appealed to me but not enough to make me buy the book right away. The price of the book also made me think of waiting until I read the reviews of the book that I was sure to come across sooner or later in the papers and magazines.

On Sunday at Abids right next to ‘Worth Dying For’ I saw a book by another writer I’ve recently read about a lot- Robert B Parker. It was of the ‘Spenser’ series though I am not able to recollect the title. I might buy it if it is still available next Sunday. Apart from this book there are a lot of books other I have seen of late that I’m tempted to buy though some of them are books that I have already with me. I saw another good copy of Pico Iyer’s ‘Video Night in Kathmandu,’ ‘Be Cool’ by Elmore Leonard, and Pankaj Mishra’s ‘Butter Chicken in Ludhiana.’ I plan to buy ‘Butter Chicken in Ludhiana’ since I haven’t read it yet though it was published ages ago. That’s because I haven’t come across a second hand copy till now.