The Sunday Haul (on 18-10-2015)

I seem to be getting luckier by the week. Since the past few Sundays I’ve been finding at least one wonderful title on my Sunday hunts for books on the pavements of Abids. Last Sunday it was Akira Kurosawa’s autobiography, the Sunday before that it was ‘The Rachel Papers’ by Martin Amis and three other titles, and earlier than that at the Best Books sale last month I found many more good titles. It is as if it’s guaranteed that I’d find at least one good title every time I visit Abids. It may sound a bit farfetched but it is true. Last Sunday I found not one but two wonderful titles all in the space of sixty seconds.

A long time ago, nearly thirty years back, someone gave me a copy of ‘Silent Spring’ by Rachel Carson that I misplaced somewhere and never saw it again. It must be somewhere in a forgotten carton in a corner of the house but I never got around to looking for it. This was one title I was looking for desperately ever since but though I found three copies of ‘All About H.Hatterr’ by G.V. Desani I couldn’t find a single copy of ‘Silent Spring’ by Rachel Carson. But last Sunday in an unbelievable stroke of luck I came across a nice copy of this title along with another title that I bought in a flash. I got this book for just fifty rupees. I happen to be an Agricultural Entomologist and I know how important ‘Silent Spring’ is in these times when just about everything is being poisoned by the indiscriminate use of pesticides that we do not need.

The other title I found at the same time was ‘Groucho & Me’ which is the autobiography of Groucho Marx. Sometime back I had found another Groucho Marx title that I do not remember very clearly but it was not in such a good condition. However, this copy was in excellent shape and I got it for just fifty rupees which is peanuts for such a good title. I am impatient to begin reading it as soon as I finish the ones I am reading right now.

These weren’t the only book I found at Abids last Sunday. I found another title I had been searching for. I came across a decent copy of ‘The Power and the Glory’ by Graham Greene. I found it in a stack of books being sold for thirty rupees each. No sooner had I spotted it than I grabbed it because it was a nice Penguin edition that I did not want to miss it at any cost. This was a wonderful find and it put me in a good mood for the rest of the day. I am already wondering what I will find next Sunday at Abids.