In the ten days that the Book Fair was held I had been there a total of five times and picked up six books. There was one book I hadn’t picked right away and left it for my final visit. On the last day of the book fair I made my sixth and final visit to the book fair that was crowded with people as it was the last day. Right after entering the fair I made my way to the second hand bookstalls and much later I realized that I had not been to any other book stall except the ones selling second hand books. There were more than dozen second hand book stall in this year’s fair with a majority of them from Hyderabad.
Anyway, it was Chaman Nahal’s ‘Azadi’ that I had come to pick up and leave immediately after. However, I couldn’t resist taking a closer look at the books again in almost all the second hand book stalls. I saw three Dave Barry titles but I did not buy them. There were almost four Elmore Leonard titles and more than half a dozen ‘Spenser’ titles but these too I did not buy. But I saw a title that I had come across and had not bought then which left me with a lot of regret. Back in 2009 or so I had seen Martin Amis’ ‘Experience’ in a second hand book store but decided I would buy it later. But on my next visit I found that the book had been sold. So when I saw it again I grabbed it especially since it was for ninety five rupees only.
Afterwards I went to the stall where I had seen almost half a dozen copies of ‘Azadi’ by Chaman Nahal and got a pleasant surprise. When I first saw it the label on the back had Rs 75 written on it but being the last day of the sale it was for sale for Rs 50 only. It was a brand new copy and the original price of the book was Rs 250 whereas I got it for one fifth of the original price. After picking up this book I came across Michael Herr’s ‘Dispatches’ but I did not buy it. This year many of the second hand book stall had a peculiar offer. They were offering two books for Rs 50 or four books for Rs 100. If you wanted one book then you had to pay the full price of the offer. ‘Dispatches’ was among books under such an offer. I couldn’t find any other book to buy along with it so I left it. I had seen the title elsewhere and I am confident I will find it soon.
This was one book fair where I bought books for which I did not have to pay more than a hundred rupees. Four out of the six books I bought cost me around fifty rupees, the fifth book was for sixty rupees and only ‘Experience’ came for hundred rupees. In the previous year’s sale I had to shell out hundred and fifty rupees for each book. I had thought that this year the prices would be even more but surprisingly the prices were even lesser than before. For three hundred and fifty five rupees I bought six great books which made me happier than anything else this year.
On Sunday I found a good copy of Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ that I got for only thirty rupees. I want to begin reading some of the old classics now and so bought this book. Luckily the seller told me I could pay anything I wanted for the book so I paid him thirty rupees which I now feel was very less. Next time I will pay him more for anything I pick up from him. Next Sunday I do not plan to buy anything since I have already bought ninety three books so far during 2012. In another post I have given the list of books I have picked up this year.
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