The Hyderabad Book Fair Haul- Day 4

When the Hyderabad Book Fair begins in Hyderabad excitement builds up in my life. I cannot help thinking about the books in the stalls all the time. The excitement is so intense that I tell myself that I would just visit the stalls and only look at the books. But I end up buying all those titles I happen to spot. On the fourth day’s visit to the Hyderabad Book Fair I ended up buying three more wonderful titles adding to the dozen or more titles that I had already bought in the previous visits.

In a second hand book stall by a Hyderabad based seller I happened to look closely at each and every title though I had already gone through the stall a couple of times before. I spotted ‘Matchbox; Stories’ by Ashapurna Debi, an almost new book that I immediately grabbed it. There were too many people poking around in the rows of books laid out on the table and grabbing is the only way you can prevent a book from being snapped up by someone else. I have read about Ashapurna Debi and had not expected to find her stories in English. There are twenty one stories in it translated into English from the original Bengali by Prasenjit Gupta. There’s also a lengthy introduction (33 pages long!) by Jhumpa Lahiri that turned out to be an extract from her thesis on Ashapurna Debi. I got the book for only fifty rupees.

The next find was in the same stall. I spotted a nice copy of ‘All About H. Hatterr’ by GV Dessani. I already have three copies of this title but I couldn’t resist picking up another copy because I am not able to put into words how wonderful and unique this book is. This book is a real rare treasure and I am truly lucky to find my fourth copy.

I had seen copies of ‘The Wandering Falcon’ by Jamil Ahmed in the earlier book fairs too and elsewhere also. Though I wanted to read this book the price prevented me from buying it. I was excited to find another good copy in a book stall of a Mumbai based seller. I thought he'd ask for two hundred rupees or more. But I was lucky this time as the seller said I could have the hardcover book for just a hundred rupees. I took it and am now planning to begin it right away.

The Hyderabad Book Fair Haul- Day 3

Not quite content with the ten titles I picked up at the Hyderabad Book Fair on my two visits I went there again on the fourth day. There were several stores I hadn’t looked in so in the short time I had before the fair closed for the day I managed to look at two stalls, carefully combing through the racks I found two good titles. I spotted a nice copy of ‘Collected Short Stories’ by Kingsley Amis. There’s an interesting introduction by Amis in this along with the following sixteen stories:

My Enemy’s Enemy; Court of Enquiry; I Spy Strangers; Moral Fibre; All the Blood Within Me; Dear Illusion; Something Strange; The 2003 Claret; The Friends of Plonk; Too Much Trouble; Hemingway in Space; Who or What Was It?; The Darkwater Hall Mystery; The House on the Headland; To See the Sun; and Mason’s Life

Then in a stall I had already been to and picked up several titles I was surprised to find another title that I love-‘The Groaning Shelf’ by Pradeep Sebastian. I do not know how I had missed this title on my previous visits but I thanked the heavens for having found it. I know I already have two copies of this same title but this was a used copy but it didn’t look like it because it was so pristine and almost new. I would have been stupid not to have bought it and so picked it up. I got both these books for three hundred rupees.

The Sunday Haul (on 21-1-2018)

On the last Sunday of July last year I had found a nice copy of ‘Crazy Salad’ by Nora Ephron and had got it for just ten rupees. ‘Crazy Salad’ was a collection of personal essays that I enjoyed reading very much for their wit and language. Then last Sunday before going to the Hyderabad Book Fair that was going on I decided to go to Abids and take a quick look around. I was lucky and found another title by Nora Ephron- ‘I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts On Being a Woman’ that is again another collection of personal essays. But I did not get it as cheap as ‘Crazy Salad’ and had to pay sixty rupees for it.

These are the essays in it:

I Feel Bad About My Neck
I Hate My Purse
Serial Monogamy: A Memoir
On Maintenance
Blind as a Bat
Parenting in Three Stages
Moving On
Me and JFK: Now It Can Be Told
Me and Bill: The End of Love
Where I Live
The Story of My Life in 3,500 Words or Less
The Lost Strudel or Le Strudel Perdu
On Rapture
What I Wish I’d Known
Considering the Alternative

After finding this I rushed to the Hyderabad Book Fair at NTR Stadium along with my friends. However I couldn’t find anything and returned home with Nora Ephron’s book.

The 31st Hyderabad Book Fair Haul- Day 2

Not content with the haul of five books I made on my visit to the book fair on the first day I went again the next day.

A long time ago I had read a review of Veena Venugopal’s ‘Would You Like Some Bread with that Book?’ but managed to get it only a year ago. It is a slim title containing about a dozen delightful essays on books and reading. If you love books and reading then you have to get hold of this book and read it and feel good. I then got to know that Veena Venugopal (until recently editor of ‘Blink’ the Saturday supplement of Business Line) had written another book- ‘The Mother-in-Law’ that I forgot about. At one stall in the book fair I came across a copy of ‘The Mother-in-Law’, a Penguin title. In the same stall I also saw a nice copy of ‘On a Clear Day You can See India’ by C. Balagopal that a friend had told me I should read and so I took both these books.

In another stall there was an offer of three titles for a hundred rupees. The first title I saw in that heap was a copy of ‘Woman in the Dark’ by Dashiell Hammett that I did not have. I was thrilled to find another Hammett title but I had to find two more titles. Then I saw a copy of ‘Atlas of Impossible Longing’ by Anuradha Roy that I already have but nevertheless decided to hold it until I found another title to replace it. I couldn’t find anything else and so to make up for the third book I picked up a copy of ‘Somebody Owes Me Money’ by Donald E. Westlake that appeared like a thriller.

So these were the five books I found at the 31st Hyderabad National Book Fair on my second visit on the second day of the fair. I still haven’t covered all the second hand book stall in the fair completely so it meant that I had to make a couple more visits.

The 31st Hyderabad Book Fair Haul- Day 1

The most impatient person in the world last Thursday was yours truly. Last Thursday the 31st Hyderabad National Book Fair was going to begin in the evening and all day since waking up I was feeling restless for it to be evening. I think I broke some speed records as well as some traffic rules last Thursday rushing from my office at Jubilee Hills to NTR Stadium in a little more than half hour, which is half the time I take to reach home. On Thursday I wouldn’t have stopped for anything, not even for a free biryani. By the time I parked the bike, bought a ticket and rushed in there was a huge crowd inside like it was the last day of the book fair and they were offering free books to all visitors. Every year the crowd seems to be growing bigger and bigger. I rushed straight to the stalls of the second hand booksellers and ended up with a haul of five books.

The first find was in a stall which had a separate table where the offer was of ‘three books for 100 rupees. ‘I saw Hitch 22’ by Christopher Hitchens and grabbed it. The next find was ‘Mr Naipaul’s Round Trip and Other Essays’ by TGA Vaidyanathan which I picked up after I saw that one of the essays inside was ‘Memoirs of a Bibliophile’ and that alone was worth buying the book for. There was another book to make up for three books so after a search I decided to buy ‘The Best of Betjeman’ Selected by John Guest, which was a collection of poetry, prose and also a television script. I’ve read about John Betjeman but haven’t found anything by him so coming across this book was a lucky thing.

I never got to read ‘The Broom of the System’ by David Foster Wallace that I had found somewhere because a good friend of mine asked for it. I gave it to her because though we have never met I consider a really good friend. She is the sort of good friend who always gives me books as gifts for my birthday. I saw a good copy of ‘A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again’ by David Foster Wallace, a collection of just seven essays that I bought along with another book for two hundred and fifty rupees. Somehow this year the sellers are not selling their books cheap and there isn’t the usual 10% discount this year which is adding to the misery of letting some books go because you cannot afford to buy them.

Sometime ago I found a copy of ‘They Came Like Swallows’ by William Maxwell that I had picked up on a hunch. I haven’t read it yet. I had also found a nice copy of 'Time Will Darken It' that I haven't yet read either. But at the book fair another book I found was a nice copy of ‘So Long, See You Tomorrow’ by William Maxwell again. This title is chosen by Ann Patchett (who won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2002) as a book that she would pass on to the next generation. In the introduction to the book Ann Patchett also writes about reading ‘They Came Like Swallows’ also. I felt glad that I now have both titles to read since she praises William Maxwell very highly calling him a genius. By the way, I haven’t read anything by Ann Patchett but plan to do so after reading this wonderful introduction.

By the time I had looked into only a handful of second hand book stalls it was closing time. There were still many I have to check out so I left feeling disappointed. I decided to make another visit the following day.

The Sunday Haul (on 14-01-2018)

Another Sunday and another visit to Abids just a few days before the ‘31st Hyderabad Book Fair’ is about to begin resulted in a few more books in the haul. The first find was a copy of ‘dust on the road; the activist writings of Mahasweta Devi.’It is a compilation of the essays and articles Mahasweta Devi has written on issues and concerns ranging from bonded laborers of Palamau to a tribute to a revolutionary. It had an introductory essay by Maitreya Ghatak.

These are the chapters in it: The Bonded Labourers of Palamau, Contract Labour, No Escape, Land and Employment, Political and Cultural Dimensions of Discrimination, Lodhas and Kherias of West Bengal, Organizations of the Rural Poor, Superstition, Casteism and Communalism etc

Another wonderful find was a copy of ‘Glimpses: The Modern Indian Short Story’ edited by Aruna Sitesh that I spotted on a shelf with another indifferent seller. ‘Glimpses’ is a collection of thirty two stories in languages edited by Aruna Sitesh. I have, over the years, managed to gather an impressive pile of Indian short story collections and ‘Glimpses’ is another good addition to this pile. These are the stories in Glimpses:
ASSAMESE: The Potion by Atulananda Goswami; The Beasts by Mamoni Raisom Goswami (Tr: Mitra Phukan)
BENGALI: ‘All for Happiness’ by Ashapurna Debi (Tr: Bhaskar Roy Barman); ‘The Heroine’ by Sunil Gangopadhyay (Tr: Bhaskar Roy Barman)
DOGRI & KASHMIRI: ‘Smoke’ by Padma Sachdev (Tr: Susheela Ambike); ‘The Metropolis’ by Harikrishna Kaul (Tr: N.P. Singh)
ENGLISH: ‘A Trip into the Jungle’ by Manoj Das; ‘A Toast to Herself’ by Raji Narasimhan
GUJARATI: ‘Sacrifice’ by Bharati Vaidya; ‘The Green Flag’ by Pannalal Patel (Tr: Sarala Jag Mohan)
HINDI: ‘The Ghost’ by Ganga Prasad Vimal (Tr: J.P. Uniyal); The Black Smoke’ by Himanshu Joshi (Tr: Shrawan Kumar); ‘The Fade-Out’ by Sitesh Aloke (Tr: Aruna Sitesh); ‘Homecoming’ by Usha Priyamvada (Tr: N.P. Singh)
KANNADA: ‘Damayanti’s Lore’ by Anupama Niranjana (Tr: Yashoda Bhat) ; ‘A Day’s Romance’ by Ranjan Bhat Tr: Yashoda Bhat)
MALAYALAM: ‘Life and Death’ by Lalithambika Antharjanam (Tr: B.K. Chandrika); ‘Shingidi Mungan’ by Vaikom Muhammad Basheer (Tr: late S. Velayudhan)
MARATHI: ‘Lust’ by Prabhakar Machwe; ‘The Last Chapter’ by Vijaya Rajadhyaksha (Tr: Susheela Ambike)
ORIYA: ‘Identity’ by Jagannath Prasad Das: ‘The Little Carved Box’ by Pratibha Ray (Tr:Jayanta Mahapatra)
PUNJABI: ‘This is My Cow, Sir’ by Amrita Pritam (Tr: Man Mohan Singh); ‘The Three-Walled House’ by Jasbir Bhullar (Tr: H.S. Hanspal)
SINDHI: ‘Wrong Arithmetic’ by Ishwar Chander (Tr: Shefalee Vaswani); ‘The Coward’ by Popati R. Hiranandani
TAMIL: ‘The Assaulted’ by Ashokamitran; ‘My Daughter Shobana’ by Chudamani Raghavan
TELUGU: ‘Ash Tray’ by Chaganti Tulasi (Tr: Jayasree Hariharan); ‘The Touchstone’ by Hita Sri (Tr: Srivirinchi)
URDU: ‘The Spell’ by Joginder Paul (Tr: Sudhir and Krishna Paul); ‘Used Clothes’ by Wajeda Tabassum (Tr: B.A. Farooqi)

As is my habit I flipped the front pages and came upon something written on a page that set my heart pounding with excitement. There was this inscription:
‘To Muthu,
with affection
father
Ashokamitran
Bangalore, Dec 24 , 1992’

Was it really Ashokamitran, the famous writer who has signed this copy to his son? I don’t know if he has a son called Muthu. Sure, there is a story by Ashokamitran in this collection and that’s reason enough for Ashokamitran to sign the book. I am very glad I got this copy.

Another interesting find was from a pile of Telugu books selling for only twenty rupees. I found a copy of ‘Praana Daata’ by Madhurantakam Rajaram. It is a collection of just four stories: Praanadaatha; Circus Dera; Miss Mariichika; Kumpatilo Kusumam; Sangha Jeevi. I picked up this book because I had heard a lot about Madhurantakam Rajaram and because I wanted to read a few Telugu short stories. It is a battered copy published in 1962, two years before I was born!

The Sunday Haul (on 07-01-2018)

2018 promises to be a great year, book wise, if what I found at Abids last Sunday is any indication. I found only three books, including two wonderful titles. I got one of them very, very cheap more out of luck than by my bargaining. Long ago I had come across a much damaged copy of William Styron’s ‘Darkness Visible’ his memoir of his depression. It was a hard cover copy that I found but the pages were all damaged and discoloured by moisture. Some years later I found a copy of ‘This Quiet Dust’, a collection of his essays. Last Sunday I found a wonderful hardcover copy of ‘Havanas in Camelot’ his famous collection of personal essays.

There’s a seller in Abids who knows the value of the books he sells and never sells them cheap. I have to pay more than a hundred rupees to him to buy books from him. It was at his stall that I spotted ‘Havanas in Camelot’ but he wasn’t around. A lanky kid stood there and when I asked him the price he quoted a price I found hard to believe. I asked him once again and he said twenty five rupees. I took out the money and grabbed the book. It had the jacket intact and later when I looked inside I was thrilled to discover that it was a first edition. There are fourteen essays in this book: Havanas in Camelot; A Case of the Great Pox; “I’ll Have to Ask Indianapolis—“; Les Amis du President; Celebrating Capote; Himmy in the House; Transcontinental with Tex; A Literary Forefather; Slavery’s Pain, Disney’s Gain; Too Late for Conversion or Prayer; Moviegoer; Fessing Up; Walking with Aquinnah; “In Vineyard Haven.”

The second find of the day was in a pile of books that were hardcovers and seemed to be from someone’s collection. Someone was already going through the pile in which I spotted an author’s name that seemed familiar. I found a nice copy of ‘From Fear Set Free’ by Nayantara Sahgal a beautiful hardcover copy with the jacket enclosed in a plastic sleeve. The most interesting thing about this copy was that it seemed to have belonged to the Kansas City public library as there is a stamp inside and also the issue card. Nobody seemed to have borrowed this book even once. Published by WW Norton & Company Inc., New York ‘From Fear Set Free’ is described as ‘A delightful mixture of autobiography and thoughtful comment on the new India…’ on the cover. It has 20 chapters in 240 pages with closely packed text. I managed to get this book for a hundred rupees after a long spell of bargaining with the seller who asked for two hundred and fifty rupees for it.
The third and last find at Abids was in a pile of books selling for twenty rupees only. I spotted ‘A Harvest of Light’ by Suma Josson in the pile and picked it up. It is a collection of poetry by Disha. There are fifty four poems in this slim collection.

The Sunday Haul (on 31-12-2017)

This is the first post of 2018, the new year, and it is about the haul of books at Abids on the last Sunday and the last day of 2017, the old year. With a haul of 186 books so far during the year I was not exactly inclined to add to the tally so I decided I would not go to Abids because I would return with at least one book if I went. However after breakfast my feet grew itchy and I started for Abids. I returned home with three nice titles I found there.

The first title I found was a paperback copy of ‘A Sort of Life’ by Graham Greene, his autobiography. It appeared to be a copy belonging to a library. I already have a copy of the same title. I had found a hardcover copy without the jacket sometime in August, 2013. I do not remember if I have read it or not but I did not want to let go of the copy I saw last Sunday so I took it. It came pretty cheap at only thirty rupees.

I really have no idea what made me buy the copy of ‘The Essential Runner’ by John Hang that I saw. I don’t run and haven’t ever run in my life. I am always eager to know about such things so I must have picked it up. It was mine for just thirty rupees.

The last find of the year was a beautiful, almost brand new copy of ‘The Foreigner’ by Arun Joshi, one of my favourite writers. It was in a stack of books being sold for fifty rupees and so I grabbed it since the original cost is and one cannot get this book for anything more than a hundred rupees. I must have bought more than half a dozen copies of this title, some of different editions. I give away copies of this title to whoever wants to read a good book by an Indian writer.

While taking stock of all the books I had picked up in the last year I realized I had missed a title that I had picked up sometime last month. I was passing through Lakdikapul and happened to notice the board of the ‘Unique second hand book store.’ I stopped to take a quick look and found an old copy of ‘The Beloved’ by Oroob’ aka PC Kuttikrishnan, the famous Malayali writer. I read on the cover that it was made into a movie also and had also won the Sahitya Akademi award. Such a wonderful book and I got it for just forty rupees. I don’t know if the small size of the book and its ancient world look must have made the people in the store think it wasn’t worth more than forty rupees.
With this book the total number of books I’ve bought this year comes to 190.