Only after I reached Abids last Sunday morning and saw all those books laid out on the pavements did I realize why I had not been in my element since two weeks. I had missed the sight, the smell and the buzz of the second hand book sellers at Abids for two consecutive Sundays. One Sunday I was down with fever and the other Sunday the Ganesh procession blocked out everything. So for almost two weeks I went around suffering from some kind of withdrawal symptoms though I had picked up quite a good book on the Sunday of the Ganesh procession. Anyway, the good news is that this Sunday the Abids books sellers were present in full strength and all was well in my world.
One of the biggest attractions of the Abids book market is that the books come very cheap. One can get good, hardcover titles at twenty rupees and sometimes less. Though I had picked up two books at the Best Books sale the other day which left me a bit short on the money front I decided to drop in at Abids if only to soak in the sight of so many books, booksellers and book lovers. However, I found three good books that I couldn’t help picking up if only for the reason that I got them damn cheap. Actually, I picked up four books but the fourth cannot be called a book in the sense it is more an illustrated book meant for children.
The first find was with a seller who had several copies of those books that could have been issued sometime in the late fifties or early sixties. The illustrations on the cover was a give away. Since I was looking for Ted Lewis’ ‘Get Carter’ I patiently sorted through a large pile of books and instead found Graham Greene’s ‘The Quiet American,’ John Steinbeck’s ‘The Wayward Bus,’ and Dashiell Hammett’s ‘The Glass Key.’ I got all three books at a rounded off price of Rs 50 which meant each book cost me a little over fifteen rupees. Considering the titles I do not think I had spent too much.
The fourth find was Maurice Sendak’s ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ which someone a long time had asked me to look for. When I spotted the book I actually leaped to the pavement and pounced on it though it was unlikely anyone could have grabbed it right away. I leafed through the book and found that a few pages had moisture stains but otherwise in good condition. I got the book for thirty rupees and since then have been trying to remember who it was who asked for this book.
But the icing on the cake was the book Uma found for me. He had picked up a Spenser novel from a heap of books selling for twenty rupees. It was Robert B. Parker’s ‘Valediction’ and came from the same heap where we had earlier found ‘Ceremony’ a couple of weeks ago. I am sure if we sift through all the books in that particular heap then maybe I can find a couple more Robert B. Parker titles. That’s what I plan to do next Sunday.
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