The Sunday Haul (on 12-3-2017)

Once again I netted a good haul last Sunday at Abids. I found no less than five wonderful titles that took the year’s total haul so far to forty one books. I am a bit anxious about the recent hauls because there seems to be no way I can read all the books I am finding. I am telling myself that I would spend days reading them after retiring from this job. But it is another five years before I retire and until then I might add another thousand or so books. There is no way I can read all the books I have with me now that I have yet to read so I seriously thinking of either stopping going to Abids or not buy anything unless it is a title that is absolutely irresistible. I’ve made such resolves earlier too but haven’t stuck to them because I love books too much to follow such ideas.

Since more than a couple of weeks I’ve been seeing ‘First Love, Last Rites’ by Ian McEwan at a seller but somehow I did not pick it up. But last Sunday after I saw it again I decided to buy it and did. It is a collection of the following eight stories: Solid Geometry; Homemade; Last Day of Summer; Cocker at the Theatre; Butterflies; Conversation with Cupboard Man; First Love, Last Rites; and Disguises. There was another title that I picked up along with it and that was ‘The Writing of One Novel’ by Irving Wallace that I have bought earlier too several times. Somehow I cannot resist buying books on writing so in it went into my haul. I got these two titles for just sixty rupees.

After finding these two books I found another good title. I saw ‘Monster’ by John Gregory Dunne who is Joan Didion’s husband. It was a book on the experience he had while writing a screenplay and since I like to read such stuff, especially about screenwriting, I decided to buy it. The seller asked for price that I thought was impossibly high though it was a hardcover title and was in a quite good condition. I quoted my price and walked off knowing that I’d get it at my price because he did not put it back but held it in his hand and thought for a long time while looking at the book. After sometime he called me and asked for a price just ten rupees more than what I had quoted. I paid 120 rupees for it and got it. A few steps away in a pile of books being sold for thirty rupees I saw ‘God’s Adversary and Other Stories’ by Shaukat Osman. What drew me to this book was the fact that it was a Penguin title and I remembered reading about this writer somewhere.

The next find was not at Abids but at Chikkadpally. Though I had already bought four books I stopped at the three sellers at Chikkadpally to look at their wares out of sheer habit. I saw a copy of ‘Children of the Alley’ by Naguib Mahfouz who had won the Nobel for literature. Though the seller asked for a high price I bought it. I paid ninety rupees for it and I think the book would be worth more than what I paid for it.