Friday Double Post- Post 1 of 2: The Haul at Kolkata

Last week I had been to Kohima in Nagaland to attend a workshop there. I had planned my return trip in such a way that I would get to spend about six hours in Kolkata. I wanted to visit College Street that I had been dreaming about after reading a lot about the book sellers there. Last Thursday finally I was at College Street. It was a momentous occasion for me as it has taken several year for me to be here.

After landing at Kolkata from Dimapur around three in the afternoon we rented a cab and took off for College Street. I had been told that there would be heavy traffic and was advised to start for the airport about three hours before my flight. So I had an eye on the time and another eye on the books in the numerous stalls on College Street. I hadn’t done much research so missed out on some things. For example I did not know that India Coffee House was somewhere around where I could have stopped for a cup of coffee.

However, I managed to find five good titles after looking around for a couple of hours. Almost all the book stalls in College Street seemed to sell only textbooks so I had to search for stalls that sold general books. Luckily I was guided to such stalls sporting boards that said ‘English Literature’ where I picked up the books. In all the articles I read about the book sellers of College Street the sellers were described as people who knew a lot about books and would be able to get almost any title that you asked for. They may have been more knowledgeable than the book sellers in Abids here in Hyderabad but they were not as knowledgeable as I thought they’d be. I had a list of titles and also authors whose books I wanted to read and that I thought I might get at College Street. In my list were Kapuscinski, Lorrie Moore, Lydia Davis, and others. But other than Arun Joshi’s ‘The Foreigner’ they did not have any title in my list which was a big disappointment.

In one stall I found two titles on writing that I already have. I found a paperback copy of ‘What I Talk About When I Talk About Running’ by Haruki Murakami, and yet another copy of ‘The Summing Up’ by Somerset Maugham. I got the two titles for a hundred rupees each. The next find was a copy of ‘Collected Lyrics’ by Edna St Vincent Millay. The first ever book I had bought in my life way back in 1993 was a hardbound copy of ‘Twentieth Century American Poetry’ edited by Conrad Aiken. One of the numerous poets featured in this book was Edna St Vincent Millay. It was my first serious encounter with good poetry other than the stuff I read in school. ‘Renascence’ was one of the three poems by St Vincent Millay that was in this collection. I was glad to buy the copy of ‘Collected Lyrics’ by Edna St Vincent Millay but I think I made a big mistake not buying the mammoth copy of Allen Ginsberg’s verse that I saw at the same stall. It wasn’t in such a good condition and it was one reason why I did not buy it apart from the fact it was rather too heavy.

Another interesting title I found was a nice copy of ‘Which Lie Did I Tell?’ by William Goldman that was a sequel to his famous ‘Adventures in the Screen Trade.’ I had bought a hard cover copy of this many years ago, long before I began this blog. I bought the hardcover copy of ‘What Lie Did I Tell?’ for a hundred and fifty rupees in the stall that also had many other movie-related titles. Unfortunately a few days later I read about Goldman’s death.

Another interesting find was a copy of ‘Etruscan Places’ by DH Lawrence that was one of the travel titles that I had been looking for. I was overjoyed to find this title that I got for a hundred rupees. It was this book that I started reading this book in the plane taking me to Hyderabad.
At College Street I did not bargain much and shelled out whatever the sellers asked for. I found these sellers to be very polite, and deferential after they realized that I was a serious buyer. I wish I had more time to see each and every stall but that would require at least one full day. I had someone with me who wasn’t very interested in books and was impatient as I hopped from one stall to another. I did not want to make him unhappy so I reluctantly stopped midway and got into the cab satisfied that I had been to College Street. I wonder when I will get to visit it again. After having been to Darya Ganj in New Delhi only recently, College Street in Kolkata last week it is Mumbai’s Flora Fountain that I want to go next to look for more books.

Friday Double Post- Post 2 of 2: The Sunday Haul (on 18-11-2018)

Barely had three days passed since returning from Kolkata with a haul of five books at College Street and I was once again browsing in Abids on Sunday for more books. I bought four books from a seller who keeps aside titles he thinks I might like. Though they weren’t something I really wanted to buy and read I did not have the heart to tell him because he is such a nice person. I ended up buying all these books from him paying him more than he asked because it was his first sale of the day and I did not want to bargain with him.

The first title in the lot he had kept aside was a copy of ‘The Price of a Wife’ by G.D. Khosla that appeared quite interesting for it was by a little known (at least to me) Indian writer and that the book was a collection of 22 short stories. Of late I had begun to adding books by Indian authors published in the late fifties and sixties to my growing collection of such books. This was the second GD Khosla title I have with me now after ‘A Way of Loving’ that I found recently and about which I have yet to write here.

The next book in the lot of books the seller had kept aside was one which I would never find the time to read in this lifetime because of its length. It was an almost new copy of ‘Chaplin- His Life and Art’ by David Robinson which is almost nine hundred pages long. To think I got this book for just fifty rupees just amazes me.

Another interesting title in the lot was a nice copy of ‘Collected Essays’ by Aldous Huxley. This has about forty five essays on various subjects under different sections, such as Travel which includes a piece on Jaipur, Psychology, Music, Painting, History, and so on.

The last title was a beautiful copy of ‘Fasting Feasting’ by Anita Desai that I almost did not take. At the last minute I added this book to the Sunday haul. With this book the total number of books I’ve bought this year is an astounding 230. There’s still December left, and the Hyderabad Book Fair that I am told is from 15th December to 25th December. By the end of the year I would have bought more than 250 books.

The Sunday Haul (on 11-11-2018)

With Diwali and the Diwali shoppers out of the way Abids was back to its old self last Sunday with the second hand booksellers at their usual spots when I went as usual to look for good titles. Since I rarely return from these trips empty handed last Sunday I managed to pick up a lot of five interesting books.

Sometimes I come across books that I somehow feel are special in some way. Either it is because of the title or the name of the author or the way the book is, one gets the strong urge to pick it up. When I saw a hardcover copy of ‘The Mouse and His Child’ by Russel Hoban I felt that I had to take it though I don’t (unfortunately) read much fiction meant for children.

Then next find was a title I remembered having read about long back which was ‘I Never Promised You a Rose Garden’ by Hannah Green. I spotted this title in a heap of books selling for twenty rupees and picked it up. A few minutes after I picked it up I found a nice copy of ‘Love and Friendship’ by Alison Lurie. I bought it mainly because it was a Penguin title and I trust Penguin to publish only very good books.

The next find, the fourth title of the day, was a beautiful, old cookbook, one of a collection of foods from different regions. I picked up the hardcover old book with the title ‘Foods of the Orient-India’ introduced by Sharmini Thiruchelvam, on the cover. I bought the title published in 1978 more for its looks than the recipes inside.

The fifth and last title was actually more of a booklet than a real book. I spotted a copy of ‘Kate Humble’s Guide to 100 Birds of Britain’ by The Telegraph in a different heap of books selling for just ten rupees. I hope it gets me into some keen birdwatching though I may not find the birds described in it.

The Sunday Haul (on 04-11-2018)

More than half the regular shops at Abids were open than was the case last Sunday displacing the second hand book sellers who usually sold their wares on the pavement before these stores. Not that it made any difference to me, because I managed to find some really interesting titles during my couple of hours’ browsing before the shoppers trooped in.

A few years ago I had found a tattered copy of ‘Travels with a Donkey’ by RL Stevenson that had many termite holes in it but nevertheless I bought it because I haven’t found the book till then. Last Sunday I found a better copy of the same title that was published in 1955 and bought it for thirty rupees.

I became a big fan of Ross Thomas after finding one of his titles out of pure accident in a heap of books at Abids a long time back and thereafter the other titles by him appeared one by one. But the Ross Thomas titles I most desperately wanted to find were ‘Missionary Stew’, ‘The Cold War Swap’ and ‘The Seersucker Whipsaw.’ Last Sunday I happened to glance at a heap of books I don’t really care to look at because they are all Mills & Boons titles and other obscure titles, I got a thrill when I saw a book that lay askew. It was a copy of ‘Missionary Stew’ by Ross Thomas and I grabbed it like it was a brick of gold. It was a hardcover library copy with the jacket intact that I got for just twenty rupees. Inside the stamps said it was from Sandpoint-Bonner County Library, Idaho and another stamp said it was purchased from the estate of Juanita Rhodes. Whatever its origins it looked like a first edition from Simon & Schuster, New York.

The next find was a nice copy of ‘Dave Barry’s Money Secrets’ by Dave Barry that I purchased without a second thought because I cannot resist anything by Dave Barry. I already have a copy of this title but I bought it because there are many I know who haven’t yet discovered how funny Dave Barry is.

The last find of the day was at Chikkadpally. I found a nice copy of ‘Beloved’ by Toni Morrison that I had missed buying sometime ago at Abids. It hadn’t been a good enough copy so I had let it be but the copy I found last Sunday was in a fine condition so I bought it. It cost me seventy rupees.

The Sunday Haul (on 28-10-2018)

With the festival of Diwali not too far away the shopkeepers at Abids had kept their shops open on Sunday which meant that some of the booksellers who sell their books on the pavements before these shops had to move away to other spots. Apart from these few booksellers who moved the other booksellers were at their usual places. It was a bit warm last Sunday as I and Uma browsed for books and I ended up finding four good titles.

I have to think of a drastic way to prevent myself from buying books on writing because I have about two hundred such books at home and despite reading all of them I do not seem to have improved on my writing skills. Last Sunday the first title I found was a copy of ‘The Creative Writing Course book’ edited by Julia Bell and Paul Magrs. It was quite bulky and looked like it would be of some use to me so I bought it.

The second and third finds were crime fiction titles by authors I had never heard about. The second title I found was a book that looked like it had changed a lot of hands and that had an attractive cover. It was a copy of ‘The Quiller Memorandum’ by Adam Hall, and I was surprised to find on the cover that it had been made into a movie starring Alec Guinness, Max Von Sydow, and the screenplay is by none other than Harold Pinter! I got this title pretty cheap, at just ten rupees only.

The other crime fiction title I picked up was a hardcover copy with jacket, of ‘Mandrake’ by Paul Eddy who was another writer I hadn’t read about anywhere till then. Paul Eddy, I read inside, was the creator of ‘Flint’ who also I have never read about. Anyway, I was glad I found this title that had a lot of praise on the blurbs at the back. This too I got pretty cheap, twenty rupees only.

The last find was a cookbook that I would have bought anyway but something on the cover caught my attention. On the cover of ‘Traditional Indian Cooking’ by Amiya Chaudhuri it was mentioned that inside was an essay on ‘Gastronomy in India’ by Nirad C. Chaudhuri. Inside I found the original bill of ‘Book World Enterprises’ Kalbadevi Road, Bombay dated 4/12/1993. For twenty five years the receipt was inside the book and no one had taken it out. It gives an impression that whoever bought it may not have used the book.