Sometimes, though very rarely, it so happens that though I do not purchase any books at the Abids book bazaar on Sundays I end up with a lot of books in other ways. Last Sunday at Abids I picked up only one book but I got a pile of new and old books as presents. I got a total of ten books from family and friends. I was overjoyed at this unexpected shower of presents that included titles by two of my favourite writers- Dave Barry and Robert B.Parker.
Though I knew that because of the festival shopping there wouldn’t be many booksellers at Abids I nevertheless went out of habit. Almost all the sellers were present but not at their usual places. I saw a book that I thought I'd buy. It was Lee Zacharias’ ‘Lessons’ that I got for only twenty rupees. I picked up the book solely because was a Penguin title and the blurbs on the back cover were irrestible. On my urging Uma bought a nice Borzoi edition of Le Carre’s ‘Smiley’s People’ that I read a long time ago.
This Diwali was special to me in more than one way. All my brothers were flying in for the festival. On Saturday one of my brothers brought these three new titles by Robert B Parker for me:
‘Cold Service’
‘Painted Ladies’
‘Rough Weather’
This takes the tally of Spenser titles that I have to read by six.
Just the day before day I had received a parcel from Mumbai. A friend in Mumbai sent the following titles:
‘Catcher in the Rye’ by JD Salinger
‘A Book of English Essays’ edited by WE Williams
‘Once Was Bombay’ by Pinki Virani
‘The Phantom Rickshaw and Other Stories' by Rudyard Kipling
‘Inspector Ghote Draws a Line’ by HRF Keating
Another brother who arrived from the US brought me the book I had asked him to get for me. Ever since I read about this title I madly wanted to read. Now that I have Dave Barry’s ‘I’ll Mature When I’m Dead’ I will begin it after finishing the book I am reading right now. Right now I am reading Christopher Hitchen’s memoir ‘Hitch-22’ though I do not have the book with me. One of my brother brought his Kindle along with him and I am reading this book on the Kindle. It is a first for me, reading a book on Kindle Kindle is amazing and my mind reels with the possibilities that it presents. More on the Kindle sometime later.
4 comments:
Lucky you! Inspector Ghote sounds interesting. I came across an unexpected little gem recently - Namita Gokhale's Paro. I was astounded that an Indian woman writer writing in the '80s could write so boldly.
BTW, Kukkatpalli now has a huge book exhibition (permanent) which sells rejects from US libraries. I've picked up a lot of second hand books there.
You NaNoWriMo'ing this year? I am.
Rasana, I too read Paro recently and it is, as you said, simply too good. There's a sequel to it by the way.
Where in Kukatpally is the book exhibition?
I am not NaNo-ing this year.
The exhibition comes up on your left when coming from panjagutta. It is past Metro (on your right), and just past Reliance Electronics (on your left).
I've picked up some terrific books there.
What is the name of the sequel?
Rasana, thanks for the info. Will check it out some day. The sequel to Paro is 'Priya in Incredible Indyaa' I guess.
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