A couple of months ago I found a copy of Jonathan Raban’s ‘In Arabia’ at Abids. I did not remember there was a copy of the same book lying unread in some corner of my house. I had picked up the book so long ago that I had completely forgotten about it. But after I bought the recent copy and checked my list I realized I have two copies of the same book which is not unusual with me. Anyway, ‘In Arabia’ is now in one of the heaps of books I keep aside in the hope of reading some time when I have lots of time on hand. Of course, such a thing never happens because I, like everyone else, never have enough time to do anything properly. So I haven’t read ‘In Arabia’ yet. In fact I haven’t sampled Raban’s writing so far though I am aware he is a famous travel writer.
Last Sunday at Abids I found another Jonathan Raban title- ‘Hunting Mister Heartbreak’ a book about Raban’s travels in America. The publisher is Edward Burlingame Books which is an Imprint of HarperCollins. It was lying in a heap of books selling for Rs 30 so I picked it up. It is a hardcover copy with the jacket intact and also in quite good condition. When I looked inside I found that it was a First US Edition and was first published by Collins Harvill in 1990. Anyway, I thought it was a good find, if only I could find the time to read it.
A little before I had found ‘Hunting Mister Heartbreak,’ I found another book that I had missed buying more than a year ago. Coincidentally, this was also a travel book like Raban’s. When I first saw Chris Stewart’s ‘Driving Over Lemons’ I wasn’t very inclined to buy it so I let it go. Recently I read about the book somewhere online. Though I wasn’t exactly looking for it I couldn’t resist picking it up for the reason that it was an excellent copy priced irresistibly- Rs 30. The publisher was an unusual name that I hadn’t heard before- Sort Of Books based in London.
The two book haul wasn’t the only thing that was good about half the Sunday. I had a long chat about writing, books, and such stuff with Uma and Daniel afterwards. Though I wasn’t exactly in sunny moods since I had to go to office later in the afternoon, the company of friends and the talk made up for the disappointment of spending the holiday at work.
A bit of news that I gleaned while chatting with the book sellers was about Best Books’ secondhand book sale. The sale is slated to begin sometime around the tenth of this month (September) and might go on for two weeks. I am eagerly waiting for it since they did not have their usual sale in May. They skipped it this year for some reason. I plan to pick up not more than two books at the sale but I know I will end up buying at least half a dozen books. They put up some really good books at the sale that draws quite an impressive crowd. One has to check out the sale on the first two days to bag some really good titles.
The day before, on Tuesday, I learnt that Amish Tripathi, the author of the bestseller ‘The Immortals of Meluha’ had been to Hyderabad on Monday to launch is latest title. Though I read the papers from end to end I have no idea how I missed reading about this event beforehand. I came to know about it only yesterday after I read it in The Hindu. I have ‘Immortals of Meluha’ that Hari gave me but I am yet to read it.
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