The Haul at the 33rd Hyderabad National Book Fair

I have made it a habit of going to the annual Hyderabad book fair on the first day itself in the hope of picking up good books long before anyone could get to them. This year too I was there on the first day of the 33rd Hyderabad National Book Fair at the NTR Stadium on Monday evening. Most of the stalls were up and the shelves filled with books in the few second hand book stalls I visited. I could pick up only four titles and that left me quite relieved since I had expected to return home with more than a dozen books.

I have managed to find and read most of Graham Greene’s titles but there are a few titles I couldn’t find all these days. When I saw a nice copy of ‘The Tenth Man’ by Graham Greene at a second hand book stall put up by someone from Mumbai I bought it. I got it for hundred rupees. The prices this year are almost the same as they were last year. The crowd too was a good one.

The second title I found was a book set in Africa. I never miss buying any book on Africa so I when I saw a copy of ‘I Dreamed of Africa’ by Kuki Gallmann I decided to buy it. It was a Penguin title and was in quite good condition. This was slightly expensive at a hundred and fifty rupees.

The third title was an old copy of ‘Poetry and Experience’by Archibald MacLeish. Inside the pages I found a poem written a piece of paper by someone who was perhaps attempting to be a poet. I bought this book for a hundred rupees.

The last title was a wonderful find. I spotted a copy of ‘The Children of Dynemouth’ by William Trevor. It was an almost brand new copy and I got it for a hundred rupees. Inside the pages I found a British Rail ticket someone seems to have used as a bookmark.

The Sunday Haul (on 15-12-2019)

With the most awaited event of the year, the Hyderabad National Book Fair, not more than two weeks away, last Sunday I was wondering whether I should go to Abids and bring home more books. I told myself that the finding books at the Book Fair is one and finding books at Abids is another thing and thus convinced I went to Abids.

Since a long time I had been waiting to find books by Surendra Mohan Pathak, who, I’ve read, is one of the most prolific and bestselling novelist in Hindi. I had come across copies of his books translated into English but I did not buy them since I wanted to read the original ones in Hindi. Last Sunday I found two titles by him, both in Hindi. I picked up a nice copy of ‘Pyaada’ by Surendra Mohan Pathak and got it for thirty rupees. Though I can read Hindi, my second language in high school, I cannot understand some words. I have no idea what ‘Pyaada’ means but I hope to find the meaning after reading the book.

A couple of years ago I came across a copy of ‘The Burden of Democracy’ by Pratap Bhanu Mehta that I gave away to Umashankar. Last Sunday I found another copy that I immediately grabbed. I need not have been so hasty since I saw another copy of the same book. The book is something I need to read to understand the mystery that our democracy is.

The last find was a nice copy of ‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie’ by Muriel Spark, a Penguin edition. I got it for only thirty rupees.
The friendly bookseller at Abids who gives me a free pass to the Hyderabad Book Fair every year gave me another one. Habeeb is the name and he sits in the Hollywood shoes lane with a small collection of books. Though I haven’t bought many books from him he makes it a point to give me that pass and his gesture fills me with gratitude.

The Sunday Haul (on 08-12-2019)

I have to confess here that sometimes I become nervous thinking about all the books I have with me. I am overwhelmed by the thought that I may not have the time to read all of them even if I live to be seventy or more. That is, if I do not buy any more books and read only those that I have managed to pick up. Last Sunday I had picked up seven books at Abids and this Sunday I managed to pick up only three, thank god.

Ever since I read ‘Stet’ by Diana Athill I’ve become a fan of her writing and managed to find a couple of her memoirs. At Abids last Sunday I found another title by her- Make Believe. It was a brand new copy with a plastic wrapping around it that I bought for two hundred rupees. Since it was a brand new copy and a Diana Athill title I did not mind paying so much for the book though I wonder how the book got there.

Though I am not much of a movie watcher some movie titles are such that one cannot forget them. One such movie title is ‘Midnight Cowboy’ that stayed in my mind all these years, and last Sunday I found the actual novel- ‘Midnight Cowboy’ by James Leo Herlihy. I spotted it in a heap and bought it though the cover and the spine weren’t in such a good condition. I got it for thirty rupees.

The next title was one I picked up on a hunch. It was a nice copy of ‘Murder as Usual’ by Hugh Pentecost published by Keyhole Crime. It appeared interesting so I bought it. I got this one too with the same seller where I bought ‘Midnight Cowboy’ and got it at thirty rupees.

Bookstore news: The Bests Books branch at YMCA, Secunderabad has been shut down. An eatery has come up in its place!

The Sunday Haul (on 01-12-2019)

The Sunday before last Sunday I missed the weekly hunt for books at Abids. There were some important guests coming over so I was ordered not to step out of the house that Sunday. But last Sunday I went to Abids and made for the Sunday before picking up six good titles. I came home with six books taking my haul of books so far this year to 196. There are still four Sundays to go before the year ends not to forget the Hyderabad Book Fair beginning a day before Christmas. It means at least another dozen books are likely to be added to the year’s haul that will cross the 200 figure again.

There’s a mix of reasons why I picked up ‘Khushwant Singh’s India; A Mirror for its Monsters and Monnstrosities’ by Khushwant Singh last Sunday at Abids. Firstly, I like to read analytical essays by intelligent observers. Secondly a curiosity to know how some problems have grown over the years in the country, and thirdly, I am attracted to books published in the country in the late sixties and early seventies. The last reason is a desire to know how Indian writers present the country and its problems to the Western reader. All these made me buy this title within moments of finding it with a seller who gave it to me for only thirty rupees.

The next book I found was of a similar vintage but a fiction title. I found a bound copy of Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’ that I did not look at closely when I first saw it. I already own a nice copy but something about the cover and the overall appearance of the book made me pick it up for a better look. My interest grew when I noticed that it was published by Prentice Hall in 1973. The font was one that almost universal in the country during that time which I found to be quaintly charming. What really made me buy it was the name of the person stamped on the front page. The name was- Syed Shahid Raza, Lieutenant 4112-Z, Indian Navy. The copy was from the American Library at USIS Calcutta. What a long journey that this copy of Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’ in my hands must have made over the years.

The next two finds were two cookbooks that I found one after the other though with different sellers. When I saw a decent copy of Madhur Jaffrey’s ‘A Taste of India’ in a pile of fifty-rupee books I couldn’t resist buying it though I already own a copy that I found quite recently.

The other cookbook was a beautifully preserved copy of ‘Classic Indian Cooking’ by Julie Sahni that I grabbed off the pavement the moment I spotted it. It was published first by ‘Grub Street’ London in 1997, and reprinted in 2008 in India. I got it for only seventy rupees though the book runs into nearly 450 pages and has some beautiful illustrations.

With the same seller I found two more wonderful titles. I had resolved to read all titles by Charles McCarry after I read his ‘Tears of Autumn’ that I had picked up on a hunch some years ago. Over time I found his other titles like ‘Second Sight’, ‘The Better Angels,’ ‘The Miernik Dossier,’ and ‘The Last Supper.’ So last Sunday when I saw a nice copy of ‘The Secret Lovers’ by Charles McCarry I was pleased with myself.

The other titles was a hardcover book with a jacket and appeared like a library copy. It is only a few years for my retirement, less than five years in fact. Naturally, thoughts of retirement have replaced other thoughts in my mind and the foremost thought is what I should do after retiring. The things I could do after my retirement range from finally beginning to write seriously to going back to the small town where I was born to live a quiet life with my collection of books. Of course, there are always new things getting added frequently- travelling, living on a farm, learning something that would keep me occupied and so on. So when I spotted a book with the title ‘taking retirement- a beginner’s diary’ in small letters I was curious about it. The author was Carl H. Klaus who, I read on the inside of the back cover, was the founder of the non-fiction writing program at Iowa University. I needed no other reason to buy it. This book I will certainly read before I retire.

The last title was a children’s book. I picked it up because it looked like something good. It was a copy of ‘Wandy and the Bumbly Wizard’ by James Flora who also illustrated the book.

The Delhi Haul-4

The last day of my two-week trip to Delhi was a Sunday and since my flight home was sometime in the night I decided to check out the second hand book market at Mahila Haat once again. I hoped that there would be more sellers than were on my last visit the previous Sunday. As expected there were about two dozen sellers or more with their books neatly arranged or haphazardly strewn around for the buyers to look. There were some sellers on the pavement just outside Gate 3 of Delhi Gate Metro station and it was here that I found my first title of that day’s haul. It was a copy of ‘My Place’ by Sally Morgan that I picked up after I read on the cover that it was an ‘Australian Classic.’

Sometime early this year on a visit to Delhi I had been to the second hand book market at Darya Ganj. The first title I had found was a nice copy of ‘The War Against Cliché’ by Martin Amis. I had got it pretty cheap at fifty rupees. I saw another copy of the same title and since I was reading it back at home I decided to buy this copy too because it was too precious a book to be left behind. However this copy was a bit expensive; I paid hundred rupees for it.

The next find was a copy of ‘The Man Within’ by Graham Greene that I don’t remember having in my collection. I was glad to find it and I got it for hundred rupees.

The last title I found was a copy of ‘The High Road’ by Edna O’Brien that I got for only thirty rupees. But as expected I was unable to locate the copy of Anees Jung’s ‘Song of India’ that I had not had the sense to pick up on my previous visit.

The Sunday Haul (on 17-11-2019)

Last Sunday at Abids I found a title that I had been searching for since a long time. ‘The Fight Club’ by Chuck Palahniuk was the title and though I had come across it recently at Jacksons Books in Pahargunj on a visit sometime during this year I did not buy it because the seller was asking for nearly four hundred rupees for the copy he had. At another time I saw a copy that was in a very bad condition and I did not feel like buying it. I had given up hope of finding a good and affordable copy so when I found it last Sunday at Abids I felt very glad. I was glad I did not buy the expensive copy I saw at Jacksons Books.

The copy of ‘The Fight Club’ by Chuck Palahniuk that I found at Abids was in an absolutely beautiful condition and looked almost new. I got it for hundred rupees which I paid unhesitatingly though I thought it was a bit on the higher side by Abids’ standards. Nevertheless I was terribly pleased with myself for having spotted the book and buying it.

The Sunday Haul (on 10-11-2019)

Having missed my weekly visits to the Sunday book market at Abids for three consecutive weeks last Sunday I was back home and very, very eager to go there. Though at Delhi where I was for more than a fortnight I had picked up nearly twenty books, and also two books only the previous day I was looking forward to find at least one good title at Abids later in the day. Ultimately, I ended up finding three good titles in the haul.

Almost a decade ago I found a copy of ‘rude food’ by Vir Sanghvi at Abids. It wasn’t in a good condition with moisture stains and a faint coating of dried up moss or something like that. I bought it for Vir Sanghvi’s writing but though it was good the copy I found wasn’t good enough for me so I gave it away half way through the book. I was certain that I would find a better copy soon. But after nine long years I came across a beautiful copy last Sunday and picked it up. I enjoy food not by eating it but by reading about it.

In the same way I also like to read accounts by people who have led other lives and decide to live the farm life by taking up farming. It also happens to be something I too want to try out after I retire which isn’t too far away. But I haven’t yet gathered courage to take the jump. Though I’ve studied agriculture in college and also worked in the department it doesn’t help much because knowledge is one thing and actual experience an entirely different thing. Farming in India isn’t anything like it is written about. It takes a lot to be a farmer in India. Anyway I have read a few books on the farm life and when I came across a beautiful copy of ‘The Dirty Life’ by Kristin Kimball I bought it.

As with farming, so with dogs. Though I don’t keep a dog I do follow shows about dogs on television. I had watched ‘Dog Whisperer’ on TLC and was quite fascinated by the behaviour of dogs and how people like Cesar Millan teach people to handle their dogs. Last Sunday I saw a nice copy of ‘Cesar’s Rules’ by Cesar Millan and bought it just to learn more.

A Saturday Haul

After returning from Delhi with a haul of around dozen books I found that I had missed the book scene in Hyderabad so decided to drop in at the Lakdi-ka-pul branch of Best Books. It was a holiday because of the second Saturday and I had a bit of time to kill so I decided to do it at the book store. I thought I’d just take a look but as usual I took a look and also took a couple of books back with me.

There are few writers in Hyderabad and even fewer poets, so few that you can count their number on the fingers of one hand. This in a city of a couple of million. One such poet among us millions of ordinary people is Sridala Swami. My only complaint about her is that she’s written only two volumes of poems. I wish she would write more but the problem is you cannot force poetry out of anyone. It took me more than a decade to find her second collection titled ‘Escape Artist’ that I found last Saturday. There are more than forty finely crafted poems in four sections in this collection.

One writer I can never have enough is Arun Joshi. I have multiple copies of almost all his novels and I picked another beautiful copy of ‘The Strange Case of Billy Biswas’ at Best. The only Arun Joshi title I do not have is ‘The Survivor’ which is a collection of his short stories. I wonder how long I have to wait, and how many bookstores to search before I find this elusive title. Wish me luck, please.

Post 3 of 4: The Delhi Haul-3

On the first of November the two week training course I was attending came to an end. It was a Friday and back at my brother’s home in CR Park I read that there was a literary event the next day at IGNCA. On Saturday one of the programmes was a talk with three Sri Lankan writers, and it turned out I had read books written by these three writers. I had ‘Reef’ by Romesh Gunasekera, ‘Serendipity’ by Ashok Ferrey, and I had not only read two novels (The Amazing Racist’ and ‘Panther) by Chhimi Tenduf La I had also exchanged mails with him when he wrote to me after coming across my blog. So I decided to go the next day as I had nothing much to do.

On Saturday I reached IGNCA and it was like a carnival. There were bookstalls selling Hindi books. I decided to check out the books since there was a title I was looking for after I read about it somewhere in Caravan, I guess. It was ‘Naukar ki Kameez’ by Vinod Kumar Shukla and I found it in a stall. If I managed to read the book it would be the third Hindi novel that I would be reading. Later while flipping through the book I discovered that Vinod Kumar Shukla had done his M.Sc (Ag). I felt a minor thrill since I too had done my M.Sc (Ag) which made me resolve to read was ‘Naukar ki Kameez’ by Vinod Kumar Shukla one of these days.

The talk with the three Sri Lankan writers was in an auditorium. Before coming to IGNCA I had gone to Oxford Book Store in Connaught Place hoping to buy ‘Sun Catcher’ by Romesh Gunesekera and get it signed by the author. But I was disappointed to discover that OBS did not have titles by any of these three writers. However, there was a stall in IGNCA beside the auditorium where I found copies of ‘The Professional’ by Ashok Ferrey, ‘Loyal Stalkers’ by Chhimi Tenduf La and ‘Sun Catcher’ by Romesh Gunesekera. After the one hour talk I approached Chhimi Tenduf La first and got his book signed and also chatted with him for a while, and I did the same with Ashok Ferrey. Finally, I approached Romesh Gunesekera who put me at ease by asking me what I did and where I lived. He told me he had visited Hyderabad some time back and I wondered how I had missed it. Anyway he was gracious and signed on the copy of his book. I felt very pleased that my otherwise boring official trip to Delhi ended with this icing on the cake.

Post 2 of 4: The Delhi Haul-2

I wasn’t at home in Hyderabad for Diwali this year. I was in Delhi attending a two-phase, two week long training course. This year Diwali fell on Sunday and the only thing I do on Sunday is to go looking for books. That Diwali Sunday I decided to go to Mahila Haat in Delhi where the usual second hand book market was shifted from Daryaganj. As I reached Mahila Haat I wondered if there would be any book sellers out on a major festival and if I would find anything worth buying. It was my first visit to Mahila Haat so I had no idea how many sellers turn up every Sunday. That day I found not more than a dozen sellers and I ended up buying just one title. I picked up a title that I already have and the reason I bought it is that it came cheap.

More than ten years ago I had found a hardcover copy of ‘Bruce Chatwin’ by Nicholas Shakespeare. It had no jacket but I bought it. However, I did not read it but read another biography of Bruce Chatwin by Susannah Clapp that I found soon after. At one of the sellers at Mahila Haat I saw a heap of books selling for only twenty rupees and in that heap was this beautiful paperback copy of ‘Bruce Chatwin’ by Nicholas Shakespeare. I saw a copy of ‘The Song of India’ by Anees Jung that I foolishly thought I would pick up the following Sunday because I couldn’t find it when I went again the next Sunday.

There was another very interesting book I saw, a large sized, hardcover copy of ‘Answered by Flutes; Reflections from Madhya Pradesh’ by Dom Moraes. It was a coffee table book and was in bad condition with many of the pages having come loose and sticking out. I did not want to buy it though it would have been a great find. I had no space to carry it home and the condition of the book also dissuaded me from buying it.
I had another Sunday in Delhi and I decided I would visit Mahila Haat again the following week.

Post 1 of 4: The Delhi Haul-1

After a gap of six months I was sent to Delhi again for another training course, two courses actually, that would take me away from Hyderabad for two weeks. I was a substitute since the person who had been originally dropped off for some reason. I was a last minute substitute and I had no choice but to agree. On one hand I was reluctant to go because it meant I would spend the Diwali festival away from the family, and on the other hand I wanted to go because I wanted to check out the second hand book market that was now shifted to Mahila Haat in Delhi. I had two weekends and I planned to make the most of it only I did not account for the smog.

Back at home after the first spell of training at an institute in Greater Noida, I ventured out to Connaught Place on Saturday morning. My first stop was Anil Book Corner at CP where I found a copy of ‘Johnnie Sahib’ by Peter Scott. I bought it one the recommendation of the seller and also because I was the first customer and did not want to disappoint him. Later I went to one of my old haunts- Jacksons Books at Paharganj. At Jacksons I found three good titles.

Though I have been reading about Ngaio Marsh and had also come across some of his titles for some reason I did not feel like picking up any title to read. It is dumb I know but that’s how I am. Anyway, the first title I saw at Jacksons Books was ‘Death of a White Tie’ by Ngaio Marsh that I decided to buy though I could have bought it cheap at Abids back home in Hyderabad. This copy of ‘Death of a White Tie’ by Ngaio Marsh was in quite a good condition so it was value for money.

Another title that I almost grabbed the moment I spotted it was a nice copy of ‘New Grub Street’ by Paul Gissing. I remember I had this title jotted down in one of my notebooks so I did not even look properly at the book which turned out to be a mistake. Later when I checked out the book at home I noticed that the first four pages of the Introduction pages were missing. Even after a couple of decades of book collecting I sometimes forget to check if all the pages are intact before buying a book.

When I saw a beautiful copy of ‘The Pillars of Hercules’ by Paul Theroux I lied to myself that I did not possess a copy of this title. So in it went into the haul that threatened to grow into more than a half a dozen books if I did not leave the bookstore immediately. Reluctantly I left the book store because there was more book hunting to do the next day, being a Sunday, at the second hand book market that was shifted from Daryaganj to Mahila Haat.

More about the rest of the Delhi haul in the next three posts over the coming days.

The Sunday Haul (on 13-10-2019)

Though the Dasara festival was over the shops were open since Diwali was another two weeks away, and people with lots of money and nothing to do would want to shop. Also there was the marriage season so the regular shops were open last Sunday too. However, apart from a couple of second hand book sellers who had moved to other corners most of them were at their usual places.

I found a title by an author I had read about sometime back- Hanya Yanagihara. I thought I wouldn’t be able to find anything by her and so completely forgot about it. Last Sunday when I saw a copy of ‘A Little Life’ by Hanya Yanagihara at Abids I got a pleasant shock. The second hand book market that comes up at Abids every Sunday is truly a treasure house. The book was more than 700 pages long and I wondered if would be able to read it. But I didn’t hesitate for more than a minute before buying it. The other shock was that I paid only a hundred rupees for it.

Even before the joy of finding ‘A Little Life’ by Hanya Yanagihara had bubbled over I saw another wonderful book. I wasn’t even aware of ‘Figures in a Landscape’ by Paul Theroux so when I saw it with another seller at Abids I felt a thrill of excitement. It was a brand new copy and no wonder the seller asked for a bomb for it. I wasn’t willing to pay so much and so walked away after the seller refused my own offer. However, I couldn’t stop thinking about it as I went around looking at other titles until I finally turned around and picked up the copy of ‘Figures in a Landscape’ by Paul Theroux. Not buying it would have been quite a dumb decision because I read that it contains essays that Theroux has written during the period 2001-2016. There are thirty essays in this title, on subjects ranging from Graham Greene, Muriel Spark, Paul Bowles, Somerset Maugham, including one that immediately caught my eye- My Life as a Reader.

I read this essay right away and looked for authors and titles that I might have also read. There was Edmund Wilson’s ‘Memoirs of Hecate County’, B. Traven (whose ‘The Bridge in the Jungle’ I had found a couple of years ago), Apsley Cherry-Garrard’s ‘The Worst Journey in the World’, and also several titles and authors I haven’t read and that I now want to look for at Abids and elsewhere. It is finding books like these that make me want to come to Abids again and again.

The Sunday Haul (on 06-10-2019)

Last Sunday the festival shopping season was in full swing with shoppers thronging the stores like it was the last Dasara of their lives. There were some people stepping out of their fancy cars, who appeared like they had enough money to buy up every piece of dress, every pair of footwear from a couple of stores. The second hand booksellers, almost all of them, were at their usual places with a couple of them perched on the fringes. Though it had been raining every day without fail, last Sunday it did not rain until I was back home safe in the afternoon. It began to rain the moment I reached home and the downpour continued for a couple of hours. Though I found just one book I found a wonderful title that I began to read while having chai at the Star of India café in Abids.

There’s something about Australian writers I am drawn to. I have a small collection of books by Australian writers, including books about Australia by other writers on my shelves but I always have a feeling that there’s more that I have to read. Only recently I read about ‘The Choke’ by Sophie Laguna that I jotted down in my TBR list. Sometime next month a friend living in Australia is getting me a couple of books by Gerald Murnane that I am eagerly waiting to read. There was ‘Monkey Grip’ by Helen Garner that I cannot forget even after having read it several years ago.

When I saw a copy of ‘How I Feel’ by Brendan Cowell with the close up of a couple in a lip-lock I picked it up to see what was inside. I had not heard of Brendan Cowell before and when I read that he was an Australian actor, writer, and director I took a closer look. The joy of buying the book was spoilt by one of the greediest seller in Abids who thinks that every book he has is worth at least three hundred rupees which is what he asked me for the copy of ‘How I Feel.’ Anyway, I read the first chapter in the café where I have chai, and it turned out to be quite interesting.

The Sunday Haul

The festival season is upon us which means shopping, shopping, shopping for many. This shopping wave displaces the second hand book sellers at Abids because the regular stores do not close on Sundays during this festival season. Luckily, last Sunday though a few stores were open many of the second hand book sellers at Abids were at their usual places. Once again, I was alone and managed to find two books, both which I already had copies of.
Of course, not content with the three books I bought in the middle of the week, on Saturday once again dropped in at a second hand book store and picked up another book. It was a nice copy of ‘Two Faces of Eve’ by Amrita Pritam. I am both ashamed and also embarrassed to say that though I have read numerous articles about Amrita Pritam, especially last month, I haven’t read anything by her all these years. One reason could be that I couldn’t find a single title of Amrita Pritam till last Saturday when I spotted ‘Two Faces of Eve’ that was one of those 70’s editions that I have come to love. I got it for seventy rupees that I thought was far too less.

Anyway, not very long ago I had found a nice hardcover copy of ‘The Other Side of Me’ by Sidney Sheldon. It was a memoir, and it was by a popular writer which was something I simply cannot resist buying. I have so many memoirs by writers that I have a fair idea of what to write in my own memoir were I to become a writer. I am waiting. Though I do not give away some titles so easily there was someone I know who is such a major fan of Sidney Sheldon that every time we meet (which is about once a month) he tells me he has re-read some title or the other by Sidney Sheldon and we’ve been meeting since more than a decade. Last time we met he told me he had read ‘The Other Side of Midnight’ fifteen times. So I thought he was the right person to give ‘The Other Side of Me’ to since he too writes.

After I gave away that copy of ‘The Other Side of Me’ by Sidney Sheldon to my friend once or twice I wondered if had done the right thing because I too had read it and found it to be very absorbing account. But then last Sunday I found another copy of the same title but in a far better condition than the first copy I had found, which, if I remember correctly, had moisture stains on some pages. This memoir is as racy as the novels Sidney Sheldon writes.

The second book that I bought on Sunday was the outcome of a casual exchange I had with a seller. Usually, on spotting me he wishes me and I move on to look at the books he has displayed and move on to the next seller. Last Sunday I happened to ask him how he was and how business was whereupon he asked me to look at a new collection he had on a shelf in a voice that told me business was dull. I wanted him to cheer up and so bought a copy of ‘My Dateless Diary’ by RK Narayan that I had read ages ago. But I had to pay a price, a steep one, for my casual query about the seller’s business. I had to shell out a hundred rupees for it when I could have got a similar copy at a different seller for half the money.

The Midweek Haul

Almost everyone I talked to in my small circle of family and friends seems to have been laid low by the fevers that are raging unabated in this city. Last week, at last, it was my turn and I was in bed for two and half days, that included last Sunday. Though I was in bed I did not stop dreaming about all the books spread out on the pavements at Abids that I would miss checking out. By Tuesday I had recovered from the fever and on Thursday I decided to drop in at a second-hand bookstore to bring down another sort of fever I seemed to have developed- the book fever. Since I was using the Metro train I decided to check out Liberty Books right beside the Durgam Cheruvu metro station in the evening.

About a year ago I had come across a badly damaged copy of ‘The Fall of a Sparrow’ by Salim Ali at Abids. Even though it was in tatters, with termite holes all over, I wanted to buy it because it was a very old edition. But I reluctantly left it alone and felt bad because I haven’t yet read that classic. About a fortnight ago on a visit to Liberty I had seen a good copy of ‘The Fall of a Sparrow’ by Salim Ali but decided to buy it later. It was on my mind all these days and on Thursday when I spotted it again I breathed a sigh of relief.

Last year in July I was in Delhi and had picked up a copy of Simon Winchester’s ‘Calcutta’ that I never got around to reading because of its bulk, and kept telling myself that I would read it one of these days. But before I could read the book on Calcutta by Simon Winchester I found another title on Calcutta at the Liberty Books store. I spotted a beautiful copy of ‘Calcutta: The City Revealed’ sitting atop a stack of books. It was another thick but after some initial hesitation I bought it unable to bear the thought of leaving it behind. I got these two books for under four hundred rupees.

On the way back home I got lucky when a girl mistaking me for a senior citizen offered me her place to sit. It was the perfect excuse for me to begin reading ‘Calcutta’ by Geoffrey Moorhouse, and it was so engrossing that I almost missed getting down at Secunderabad station. After I finish reading this title I plan to start reading Simon Winchester’s Calcutta.

The Sunday Haul (on 15.09.2019)

Sometimes, but very rarely though, I get the feeling that I am perhaps too lucky finding good titles almost every Sunday at the second hand book market at Abids. I cannot stop myself from buying all the good books that I see even if it means there are books piled up all over the place at home. Last Sunday, once again, I found four good books that I couldn’t resist buying.

The first book I found at Abids was one that attracted me with its cover. It was a bright yellow one and on the cover was the information about John Updike’s introduction, that it was ‘The Classic novel of Life and Death in an American Hospital’ which was more than enough for me to pick up the copy of ‘The House of God’ by Samuel Shem. On the inside of the back cover I read that Samuel Shem was the pen name of Steve Bergman, a Rhodes scholar and a doctor on the faculty of Harvard medical School and he had written three novels and a non-fiction title with his wife.

By a strange coincidence the second book I found at Abids- ‘The Death of a Beekeeper’ by Lars Gustaffson- was also published in the same year as ‘The House of God’ by Samuel Shem, the first book I found at Abids last Sunday. Published by Collins Harvill, the book has a classy attractive cover which was the first thing that drew my attention to the book. There’s a lot of praise for this book on the back cover so it was another reason, apart from the cover, why I bought this book too. This I got for seventy five rupees.

There’s something about Australian writers and also about Australia that I find very difficult to ignore. Sometime back I had found ‘Monkey Grip’ by Helen Garner and was quite taken up by the unforgettable story. Recently I read Howard Jacobson’s ‘The Land of Oz’ his account of his travels in Australia in the company of his wife who had lived in Australia. There’s another Australian writer I am looking forward to read soon- Gerald Murnane. I have found Ray Ericksen’s ‘West of Centre’ and also ‘Sydney’ by Jan Morris a long time back and also read those books. Last Sunday I found a copy of ‘The Mint Lawn’ by Gillian Mears. I picked up the book after I saw the Penguin logo on the cover and later I read on the cover that Mears was an Australian writer. Needless to say I bought it but I had to pay a hundred rupees for it.

There’s another thing I picked up at Abids along with these three books. It isn’t exactly a book of fiction or non-fiction but it can be called as a student’s guide book on Robert Browning’s ‘My Last Dutchess.’ It had that sort of cover that suggested that it belonged to the 40’s or 50’s but I couldn’t find the date of publication anywhere inside. But the reason I bought it was the name on the cover- The Deccan Publishing House, and the name ‘Chandragupta Press, Afzal Gunj’ on the last page. I don’t think The Deccan Publishing House exists now. This is historically interesting, and I hope to find out more about it.