The Sunday Haul @ Darya Gunj

On Sundays especially, wherever I am, I like to go looking for books and bookstores. It is what I do on Sundays in Hyderabad where I live. The Sunday before this I was in Delhi on way to Nainital to attend a training course. After a quick breakfast at Telangana Bhavan where I was staying I left for Darya Ganj in order to be there by half past nine. I had been to Darya Ganj so long ago in the past that I had forgotten what it looked like. Of course, I was bursting with eager anticipation about what I would find at this market that I had read so much about.

Within the first minute I spotted a great title. A little explosion of delight went off inside me when my eyes read the title of the very first book I saw at Darya Ganj. It was a copy of ‘The War Against Cliché’ by Martin Amis that was on the top of a heap of books selling for fifty rupees only. Holding the book in my hands I couldn’t believe my luck at finding this title that I had read about long, long back when I was just starting off book collecting. This find was a real treasure because when I looked at the contents page I noticed that there was a piece on Elmore Leonard!

The next finds came soon enough with another seller. I found a good copy of ‘Everywhere I Look’ by Helen Garner whose ‘Monkey Fever’ I had picked up on a hunch and had read only to become a fan of Helen Garner’s writing. ‘Everywhere I Look’ is my second Helen Garner title and I am terribly pleased I found this collections of essays by her.

Immediately beside it was a copy of ‘Our Story Begins’ by Tobias Wolff that I hesitated to buy. I had set myself a limit of only three books to buy and if I found better books then what? So I decided to buy it later if I did not find better titles. However, when I saw a hardcover copy of ‘My Father’s Friend and Other Stories’ by Ashokamitran I was tempted to buy it. Ashokamitran’s style never fails to enthral me with its simplicity and lucidity so I did not hesitate before buying it for a hundred rupees.

The next find with another seller was a good copy of ‘Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society’ by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer that I had read somewhere was connected with books. This got me interested in the book and so I picked up this title too. It did not come cheap at hundred rupees. I bought this book in place of Anne Lamott’s ‘Bird by Bird’ that was right next to it and that I now think I should have also bought though I have two copies of this title at home. Later I went back and picked up the Tobias Wolff title.

After that five book haul at Darya Ganj on Sunday morning I thought I wouldn’t find any more books since I had not only exceeded my limit of two books but I wasn’t going anywhere near books for some time. However, later in the evening I strolled across to Connaught Place to gawk, and I stumbled across a book seller I had tried to locate on an earlier visit to Delhi sometime last year. I spotted ‘Anil Book Corner’ below a large bright board of ‘Tonino’ that I guessed could be another fancy eating joint. I saw a copy of Arun Joshi’s ‘The Apprentice’ that I was tempted to buy but when I saw a copy of ‘Brother, I’m Dying’ by Edwidge Danticat I gave up the idea and bought Danticat’s book instead. Sometime last year I had come across an Edwidge Danticat title at Abids that I foolishly believed would be around the next Sunday and did not buy it right away. When I went to look for the next Sunday it wasn’t, obviously, there and which made me feel like jumping into a well had there been one at Abids.

One day while wandering around the main roads of Nainital sometime last week I came across a bookstore whose name I am not able to recollect now. I went inside and saw a few Hindi titles that I looked at closely. I became suddenly excited when I saw a copy of ‘Kitne Pakistan’ by Kamleshwar which was a title I had jotted down after reading about it somewhere. I also saw the original Hindi version of ‘Raag Darbari’ by Shrilal Shukla. I was torn between these two title- which to buy? Obviously I couldn’t buy both of them though I wanted to. I had read the English version of ‘Raag Darbari’ and since it had been my plan to read it in Hindi I opted for ‘Raag Darbari’ and left behind ‘Kitne Pakistan’ promising myself that I would buy it when I come across it again.

A Midweek Haul

The Friday before last it had started to drizzle while I was on my way home. Since I ride a two wheeler I decided to stop somewhere until the rain stopped. I was a little away from a new store that the MR Books had opened in the Nagarjuna circle in Punjagutta in Hyderabad. I stopped there with the plan to browse until it stopped raining. There I found a book which was a sort of sequel to a title I had already read.

On New Year’s day last year I had picked up a copy of ‘The Spiral Staircase’ by Karen Armstrong at Abids. A couple of weeks later I read it and found Karen Armstrong’s account of her experiences as a nun and as an ex-nun. After finishing reading ‘The Spiral Staircase’ I wished I could also read the first part of her memoir- Through the Narrow Gate. I’m lucky in that sooner or later I always find the book I want to read. I felt glad spotting ‘Through the Narrow Gate’ at the MR Bookstore and bought it for a hundred rupees which isn’t much. I planned to read it on the plane journey to Delhi en route to Nainital for a training course I was told to attend.

The Sunday Haul (on 10-06-2018)

Last Sunday's visit to Abids resulted in a haul of three wonderful titles. These are the titles in the haul:

The Sunday Haul (on 3rd June, 2018)

I already possess a nice copy of ‘The Serpent and the Rope’ by Raja Rao that I found recently but when I saw another good copy at Abids on Sunday I couldn’t resist picking it up. There is something about the covers of these 1960’s titles that makes it impossible to ignore them and leave them behind. I haven’t yet read the book but I hope to read it soon. I got this nice copy for thirty rupees only.

Not very long ago I had seen a couple of hefty volumes with a seller that on close scrutiny turned out to be the entire series of ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ by Kalki-. The volumes were so intimidating in their size that I did not dare to buy them because I may not have the time to read all of them. Later I realized that I had committed an enormous blunder not buying all the five volumes of’ Ponniyin Selvan’ When I saw a lone volume in the series-‘Cyclone’ , the second in the series I bought it. I wish I could find all the remaining titles in the series. I bought ‘Cyclone’ for forty rupees.

The Sunday Haul (on 27-5-2018)

The first thing I saw at Abids last Sunday made my heart leap with joy. There were more than two dozen issues of Indian Literature in two stacks with a seller. I sat down and looked at each and every issue carefully searching for some name that would catch my eye. I was looking for stories by Arun Joshi or something interesting in those well preserved books. I wished I could buy all of them but I knew it wasn’t possible. Finally I found an issue with an interesting title on the cover- Men and Books by Adoor Gopalakrishnan. I picked up the May-June 2003 Issue 215 and looked at some of the contents. The issue had a tribute to Sisir Kumar Das, described as the ‘greatest scholar of Indian Literature’ which was something I was not aware of. Then there were the usual book reviews, poems (one by a Telugu poet- Mandrapu Hymavathy), stories, essays, and also literary criticism. I have it on my table at the office and will go through it piece by piece whenever I find time.

A couple of months earlier I had come across a Margery Allingham title but I gave it a miss because it did not appear interesting enough. A few weeks after that I read in a book that listed the 100 great crime novels that Margery Allingham was one crime writer not to be missed. Though I do not remember now which Margery Allingham title was listed in that book I did remember the name of the author. So when I saw a copy of ‘Coroner’s Pidgin’ by Margery Allingham with the same seller from whom I had bought the copy of Indian Literature.
I got both these titles for eighty rupees only.