The Sunday Haul (on 20-12-2015)

The haul of just three books that I found at Abids last Sunday was peanuts compared to the nearly two dozen books I found at the Book Fair in the four visits I made so far. I thought I’d write about the book haul at the Book Fair sometime after it is over.I am finding it difficult to write about finding so many books in just one post. I plan to do a couple of posts about the Book Fair hauls at leisure but most certainly before the end of the year.

Last Sunday it was full house, that is, there was everyone in the Gang of Four that scoured the pavements at Abids for good titles. After chai and a chat about global events and such things we set out for the real job that we came to Abids for. I had already been to the Book Fair by then and had bought more than a dozen books so I was really not inclined to buy any books at Abids. But even though I had bought a truck load of books the previous evening I cannot resist picking up a good title if I find one at Abids. So the first book I saw was ‘Charity’ by Len Deighton that had a pink cover and different from the edition I had at home. I really did not want to buy it but it was in a heap of books selling for just ten rupees so I bought it though what I was really looking for was ‘Hook’ and ‘Sinker’ in the ‘Hook, Line, and Sinker’ trilogy by Len Deighton.

The next book I found was ‘The French Connection’ by Robin Moore. I had seen this book the previous Sunday but hadn’t thought of buying it because I did not know much about it though the title sounded very familiar. On the cover it said that it was made into a movie also. This Sunday however I bought it. I got the book for forty rupees.

The next find was not my usual crime fiction, literary fiction or any of the kind of books I usually buy. It was a cook book that I picked up. I found ‘Indian Fast Food’ by Pushpesh Pant that had an attractive cover and seemed to be almost brand new. It was in quite good condition and the production was of a very high standard. I had read some of Pushpesh Pant’s columns in the newspapers more out of curiosity than any real interest in cooking. However, I must say that this urge to learn to cook is becoming stronger as I keep finding more such books. Anyway, I saw that the recipes mentioned inside the book seemed fairly easy and ended up buying the book. Incidentally, though the classy book was printed and bound in Singapore I got it for an Indian pavement price of only fifty rupees.