The Sunday Haul (on 21.07.2019)

Not that I am glad about it but it was another Sunday when it did not rain making it possible for me to browse for books at the second-hand book market in Abids. I had a leisurely browse and picked up two titles one of which I had seen the previous Sunday. It was among about half a dozen new books I had my eye on but couldn’t buy because the seller asked for an astronomical amount for them. Recently somewhere I read that a television series ‘Big Little Lies’ was based on a book by Liane Moriarty. The previous Sunday I had seen a copy of ‘The Husband’s Secret’ by Liane Moriarty that I couldn’t buy because of the price. However last Sunday I agreed to the price that the seller asked for and bought it.

The next find was in a heap of books with a board that said ‘Each Book Rs 50 Only.’ Rummaging through the pile I located a copy of ‘A Cordiall Water’ by M.F.K. Fisher. In the Introduction Fisher writes that this book is a collection of odd and old receipts to cure the ills of people and animals, mostly told to me by the believers. Sometime in March I had found a copy of ‘Not Now But Now’ by M.F.K. Fisher that I haven’t found the time to read yet.

The Sunday Haul (on 14-07-2019)

Last Sunday turned out to be another mega haul Sunday. I came home from Abids with eight books, all of them wonderful titles.
But first, ‘A Goddess in the Stones’ by Normal Lewis was a book that I found a day earlier, on Saturday. It was a holiday for us because it was the second Saturday of the month. On Saturdays I read ‘Mint’, ‘The Business Standard’ and also ‘The Business Line’ that carry supplements with interesting articles. I buy these papers at a newspaper vendor in Lakdi-ka-pul, sit down in an Irani café thereabouts and read these papers over a cup of chai. That done, last Saturday I decided to check out the books with the seller opposite the BSNL building. I spotted a copy of ‘A Goddess in the Stones’ by Normal Lewis that I bought. There was also a copy of ‘The Big Sleep’ by Raymond Chandler that I wanted to buy but did not because the seller quoted too high a price.

On Sunday at Abids the first title I found was a nice copy of ‘Travels with My Aunt’ Graham Greene. I had seen copies of this title earlier too but haven’t picked up for some reason though I love everything that Greene has written. I did want to read this too and so I picked it up for just fifty rupees.

There’s a seller who I shall call ‘Any Book at the Same Price’ seller at Abids who sells all the books with him at the same price- either ten rupees or thirty rupees depending on his mood. I picked up the hardcover copy of ‘Hector Protector & As I Went Over the Water’ that said on the cover that the illustrations were by Maurice Sendak. It was the only reason I bought this title. After buying this I saw a copy of ‘Hers’ by A. Alvarez which was a Penguin title. When I picked up to take a closer look at the back to find out more about the writer the seller said I could have it for ten rupees only. A Alvarez is a British writer and this book was a thriller, and any thriller by a British writer is bound to be good as far as my experience goes.

A couple of Sundays ago I had found a copy of ‘Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual’ by Michael Pollan that I bought and also finished reading in just one hour. It was a wonderful book with some common sense rules about eating and food that everyone needs to know. Last Sunday I saw a nice copy of ‘In Defense of Food’ by Michael Pollan with the same green and white cover. I bought it without much thought and next I hope to find ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma’ by the same author sometime soon.

Almost eleven years ago in July, 2008 I had found a copy of ‘The Bookshop’ by Penelope Fitzgerald and bought it. Of course, I read it right away. Since then I haven’t been able to find any other title by Penelope Fitzgerald until last Sunday. I spotted a beautiful box with three novels by Penelope Fitzgerald: ‘Offshore’, ‘The Bookshop’ and ‘The Blue Flower’ that were in mint condition. I bought these three novels in the box for hundred and fifty rupees.

The last find of the day was a beautiful copy of ‘Saffron & Pearls’ by Doreen Hassan that I found with a seller at Chikkadpally. I had read about it sometime ago but hadn’t thought I’d find it anywhere other than regular bookstores. So when I spotted this book I bought it. It had a jacket, and in the pages inside were lovely photographs for some of the iconic Hyderabadi dishes along with their recipes. I bought it for only two hundred rupees.

The Sunday Haul (07-07-2019)

Once again it did not rain last Sunday. Personally I was happy but otherwise it is something to get deeply worried about because if it doesn’t rain enough no one will have enough to eat, earn, or drink water. These are only a few of the problems that result but there are other problems too, too many to list here. Anyway, it did not rain and I was able to go to Abids in the morning and look at the books spread out on the pavement to my heart’s content. Also, I picked up three good titles.

There’s a seller at Abids who usually sells all his books at one price; either at ten rupees or thirty rupees. He prices them according to the size of the book especially its thickness. I’ve many books cheap from this seller but one book I still remember is the one by Jorge Luis Borges titled ‘The Mirror of Ink’ for just ten rupees. Well, last Sunday I found two books with this man that I got for only forty rupees at the rate of twenty rupees per title. The two titles I picked up were- ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ by Erich Maria Remarque and ‘The End of an Affair’ by Graham Greene. These copies were old editions and had different covers from the copies that I had bought long back. I picked up these too because they were too irresistible.

With another seller I found a copy of ‘The Penguin Film Review’ that looked quite ancient. I got this quite cheap, at only thirty rupees. There are no reviews of films in this book but articles about screenwriters, the German films of Fritz Lang, native films of Mexico, British film music, and books about film and so on.

The Sunday Haul (on 30.06.2019)

Last Sunday the weather was such that I felt it was time to leave the cap at home while going out. It was a cloudy and windy day but it did not rain. I was glad that it did not rain or else I wouldn’t have been able to look around at the pavements at Abids for books to buy. However, I ended up buying three good titles in the couple of hours I spent at the Sunday book bazaar at Abids here in Hyderabad.

The first title was a book that I already have a copy of. I had bought a pretty old copy of The Seven Storey Mountain’ by Thomas Merton at the World Book Fair in New Delhi while I was there on work sometime in 2016. The copy I found at Abids was far better than the one I had bought in New Delhi. The cover was good and the binding was intact. One of the reasons why I hadn’t started to read it was its condition but now that I have a good enough copy I think one of these days I have to begin reading this much talked about book.

I’m always intrigued that there were so many Indian writers writing English fiction that I do not know. Whenever I see a book in English by an Indian writer I make it a point to buy it. Last Sunday at Abids I found another such title. I saw a copy of ‘First Light’ by Leena Dhingra that had an attractive cover and picked it up for a closer look. It wasn’t a hardcover though it looked like one. The book was bound in hardcover and the cover pasted on the front like they do in lending libraries. Inside I saw the stamp of ‘Ritana Books’ Defence Colony Flyover Market, New Delhi. On my previous visit to New Delhi I had visited a book store in Defence Colony that I read about online as one of the places for book lover to check out. It wasn’t ‘Ritana Books’ though. Anyway, the surprising thing about this book is that the seller asked for just ten rupees for it!

In the first week of the month I had found another copy of ‘Beloved’ by Toni Morrison and this Sunday again I found another title by the same author. I saw a copy of ‘Paradise’ by Toni Morrison on a make-shift bookshelf at Abids. I bought it without hesitating, for sixty rupees.