Two Hauls

The Haul at the Sale More than the trip to Abids every Sunday, more than the Literary Review in The Hindu every first Sunday of the month and more than the annual Hyderabad Book Fair what I eagerly wait for is the sale of secondhand books by Best Books Centre that happens twice a year. However, I await this event with a bit of trepidation also because I don't know if I will have enough money to buy all the titles I want to buy. At such sales I feel like someone let into a banquet after a long fast. This feeling is especially strong on the first day of the sale which I unfailingly attend no matter what. The first visit on the first day is always dangerous because I tend to pick up every good book in sight no matter what the price. Last week I went on the first day of the sale and picked up more than a couple of books that left me short of a few hundred rupees. If there is one gripe I have about these kind of sales by Best Books it is that such sales always seem to be held in the second half of the month when the wallet is more than half empty. So it was with a depleted empty wallet that I made my first visit to the Best Books sale at YMCA. Within minutes of entering I picked up Haruki Murakami's 'Norwegian Wood' for Rs 150, a second copy of Diana Athill's 'Stet' for Rs 95. I had picked up the same book at Abids not more than a couple of Sundays ago for Rs 30. I still haven’t started reading this book contrary to my claims of reading it at the earliest. Anyway, the third book I picked up was the 'Oxford Essential Guide to Writing' for Rs 125. This is one book I shouldn't have bothered to pick up because even after reading approximately a hundred books on writing I am unable to finish my first novel eight years after I have started it. However, I hope this book will help in fixing whatever shortcomings in my writing that seem to be hindering the completion of the novel. Four days after the first visit I went there again yesterday. On my first visit I had also seen a book of poems by TS.Eliot, something that I had promised myself to buy recently, and also a book of stories by William Faulkner and 'Hindoo Holiday' by A.J. Ackerley. Alas, when I looked for them I couldn't find them. Half disappointed at not finding them and also half relieved that I was spared buying these books I bought Somerset Maugham's 'The Human Element and Other Stories' for ninety five rupees. There was the 'Complete Prose of Woody Allen' and also Naipaul's 'The Overcrowded Barracoon' that I reluctantly did not buy in favor of Maugham's book. The sale is on until the end of the month and the guys at the sale told me to come next week as they would be getting newer stock. The Sunday Haul The next day of my first visit to the sale happened to be Sunday, and as usual I went to Abids to look for more books. I found a nice copy of Susan Isaacs 'Shining Through' which I want to send to a friend in Mumbai. I had bought a copy at Abids a long time ago and read it soon after. 'Shining Through' is full of witty lines and is the kind of book I enjoy reading. Linda Voss is one unforgettable character and if you like some really hilarious stuff then this is the book. I couldn’t find the Jonathan Franzen title I had seen earlier. After buying nearly half a dozen books in less than thirty six hours I was in no mood to add more books to my bookshelf and so returned home earlier than usual.