The Sunday Haul (on 2/7/2017)

The Sunday before last Sunday I had returned home from Abids empty handed. Next day happened to be Ramzan so all the regular stores were open for the last minute shoppers. It meant that all the second hand booksellers had set shop at different places other than at their usual spots on the pavement in front of the regular stores. It was a bit disconcerting and apart from it, none of my friends turned up so alone I trawled through the heaps of books laid out on the pavement and failed to find anything worth buying.

However, last Sunday it was the normal scene at Abids with the regular stores shut and the second hand booksellers back at their usual place. On top of it Jai made an appearance after a long gap. By then I had already picked up my first find- another copy of ‘Screenplay’ by Syd Field that I got for two hundred rupees. It was a new copy and though I had a copy already I picked it up. Later my two other friends joined us and we sat in the café and indulged in a long spell of conversation about books, movies, and other things. Shrikant wanted the ‘Screenplay’ and took it so that is why there is no picture of that book here.

The next find was another cookbook. I found ‘Balti’ a hardcover book in an interesting format. It had a lot of recipes of chicken, mutton, prawn dishes apart from a few recipes of a few vegetarian dishes. I picked it up for just fifty rupees. The next find was in a heap of books selling for fifty rupees. It was a copy of ‘Too Much Happiness’ by Alice Munro, the master storyteller. I don’t remember if have a copy of this title but I picked it up. It was too good a title to let go. It had the following ten stories: Dimensions, Fiction, Wenlock Edge, Deep-Holes, Free Radicals, Face, Some Women, Child’s Play, Wood, and Too Much Happiness.

I got a pleasant surprise when Jai gave me a copy of Jo Nesbo’s ‘The Redbreast.’ I had no book to give him but I told him to pick up ‘Twilight at Macs’ by Ross Thomas that we saw in a heap of books selling for only twenty rupees.

The last find was not at Abids but at Chikkadpally and it was a very interesting title that I found. I came across a copy of ‘The Picador Book of Latin American Stories’ edited by Carlos Fuentes and Julio Ortega. I got this wonderful title for just fifty rupees. There were thirty nine Latin American short stories in this collection. Of the thirty-nine writers I am familiar with only three names- Carlos Fuentes, and of course, Jorge Luis Borges, and Marquez. I was happy with this find and am eagerly waiting to read it.