The Sunday Haul

Impatience, on many occasions, landed me in avoidable and embarrassing situations, hurt my ego and of course, emptied my pockets faster than anything else. On the rare occasion when I have held myself back I’ve been rewarded though not as much as I had expected. But if you are a book lover and are always on the hunt for them in second hand stores, patience is not advised. You don’t put aside a hard to find book with the idea of buying it later. You simply grab the book, pay for it at whatever price it is available and get out of the store. In such situations the adage ‘He who hesitates loses’ holds good.



Sometime last week I was in the Best Books branch in Lakdikapul and had just then picked up ‘Islands of the Marigold Sun’ which was probably the reason why I did not buy the next book I saw. It was ‘John Buchan’s ‘The Thirty Nine Steps’ on a shelf near the staircase on the first floor. I instinctively felt that it was a good book without even reading the blurbs at the back. I had also not heard about this book before but had that gut feeling buying it right away would be the thing to do. But I didn’t. One reason was the price which was Rs 75. Another reason was that I did not want to take home two more books on a week day. So I gave up the idea of buying ‘The Thirty Nine Steps’ hoping that the book would be there till my next visit.



Last Sunday, at the same spot at the same seller from where I had picked up Alistair MacLeod’s ‘The Lost Salt Gift of Blood’ for twenty rupees I saw another copy of John Buchan’s ‘The Thirty Nine Steps.’ I picked it up without a second thought for the same price that I paid for MacLeod’s book. This copy had a different cover though but was also in perfect condition. I was glad I had not picked up the other copy I had seen at Best Books the other day. Sometimes I pick up books by its cover alone and on Sunday apart from the cover the author’s name also influenced me to buy an interesting book. I saw a hardcover copy of ‘My Name is Aram’ by William Saroyan and illustrated by Don Freeman. It had an interesting illustrated cover and appeared like a copy worth collecting so I took it. I got it for only fifty rupees. The book was in good condition and appeared to be a copy from a library.

The next find was at Chikkadpally where I picked up a book I had seen the previous Sunday. I’ve never read any book by Shashi Tharoor so when I found one of his earliest works- ‘The Five Dollar Smile’- I bought it by paying fifty rupees for it.