The Sunday Haul (on 26-07-2015)

I do not exactly remember where I first about Peter Blauner but I think I read his name in Stephen King’s ‘On Writing.’ Somehow the name seemed to have stuck in my mind and when I came across ‘Casino Moon’ at Abids sometime in April, 2013 I picked it up. I had then thought that it was on a hunch that I had picked up Peter Blauner’s ‘Casino Moon’ but I realized later where I had read about Peter Blauner. After I read ‘Casino Moon’ I wanted to read all the books Peter Blauner had written because I enjoyed his writing. Luckily enough, after a few months I found ‘Slow Motion Riot’ at the book fair in December, 2013. It was another good read. I was hooked but I couldn’t find other titles by Peter Blauner until last Sunday.

In a heap of books selling for twenty rupees I came across a brand new copy of ‘Man of the Hour’ by Peter Blauner. There were a couple of people poking about in the same pile so I grabbed the book before their eyes fell on it. I needn’t have because I thought there were few people who knew about Peter Blauner. But I did not want to take any risk so I paid the twenty rupees and was on my way to the next heap where I found another short story collection.
I had heard the name ‘Ashapurna Devi’ quite a few times but did not actually read anything she had written. Now I am going to because I found a slim collection of short stories titled ‘A Bouquet of Modern Short Stories’ that I got for only ten rupees. It had five stories: The Actress (Abhinetri), Earth (Mrittika), The Point Beyond the Limit (Seemarekhar Seema), The Match Box (Deshlal Baksho) and The Many Colours of Renunciation (Bairagyer Rong) and the stories were translated by Anima Bose.

Another book I picked up was ‘Don’t Stop the Carnival’ by Herman Wouk. I am seeing this copy since ages with a seller and finally I decided to buy it. I had read somewhere that is a good book but I will know if it is only after I manage to find the time to read it.

Another book I found was ‘The Screenwriter’s Problem Solver’ by Syd Field that I bought for quite a substantial amount in the hope that I would manage to find what the problem was with the script I had written. I really hope it is worth the two hundred rupees I paid for it.