The Sunday Haul/ The Republic Day Haul (on 26-01-2020)

A few years back I had chanced upon a copy of Alistair MacLeod’s ‘The Lost Salt Gift of Blood’ at Abids one Sunday. Only a few days before I had picked up a copy of ‘Islands’ by the same author and finding the second book was a lucky thing especially since I had got it for only ten rupees. Much later I read ‘Islands’ and realized I had found a wonderful writer. Last Sunday at the same seller where I had found ‘The Lost Salt Gift of Blood’ I found another collection of short stories. It was a copy of ‘Man Descending’ by Guy Vanderhaeghe that I would have not bought had I not seen the blurb by Alice Munro-‘These stories are wonderful.’

These are the stories in this slim and small book:
The Watcher/Reunion/How the Story Ends/What I Learned from Caesar/Drummer/Cages/Going to Russia/A Taste for Perfection/The Expatriates’ Party/Dancing Bear/Man Descending/ Sam, Soren, and Ed.

One of the things that makes/made me go to the Abids Sunday book bazaar is the joy of finding new books, new authors and I’ve never been disappointed. Every Sunday I come home with some wonderful titles by great writers that fill me with indescribable joy. Last Sunday I spotted a book that had an attractive cover. Intrigued by the colourful cover I took a closer look at the hefty copy of ‘Footsteps’ by Pramoedya Ananta Toer. It was the third title in a quartet called the ‘Buru Quartet’ and according to what I read online about the author and his books, it is something unique. However, I was also disappointed that I had no idea if I would find the other three titles of the Buru Quartet. Sometime back I had found a copy of ‘The Climax of an Empire’ by Jan Morris, and a title in ‘The Pax Britannica’ trilogy. Till date I haven’t found the other two titles in the trilogy, and don’t expect to find them. Instead of waiting to find them I think it would be a good idea to get them online which is what I plan to do.

However, I was thrilled that I could find something from Indonesia, a country whose literature I am not familiar with. Another small thing that had me more thrilled was that I share my birthday with Pramaoedya Ananta Toer though the year is different.

The Sunday Haul (on 19-01-2020)

At around the time when my interest in writer’s memoirs and autobiographies was gradually rising I read about ‘The Performing Flea’ about PG Wodehouse. Needless to say I love Psmith, Jeeves, Bertie and all the other characters of Wodehouse. After I discovered Bill Bryson and Dave Barry I haven’t gone back to Wodehouse. It’s been quite a long time since I’ve read anything by Wodehouse and though I intend to read a Jeeves it was ‘The Performing Flea’ that I was longing to find. At last I found it at Abids last Sunday.

It was a tattered copy.The front cover was coming apart and the cover itself did not look too appealing but I bought it anyhow for a hundred rupees. I plan to start reading it one of these days.

The Sunday Haul (on 12-01-2020)

The second Sunday of the New Year turned out to be one that yielded a generous haul of books for me at Abids. I picked up five titles, four more than what I picked up the previous Sunday that happened to be the first Sunday of 2020. Though I always resolve to buy fewer books every new year I end up buying as usual- more than what I can read.

A long time back, at Abids, I came across a title that was intriguing-‘The Dressing Station’ by Jonathan Kaplan. It was an account by a surgeon of the time he travelled to many places including those where there were wars and conflicts. I had picked it up right away and also read it not long after. Somehow I lost track of the book though I think it is somewhere at home. Last Sunday I came across another copy of it but this was a hardcover copy and a first edition to boot. It was irresistible and in it went into my haul.

Some of the most commonly seen books anywhere are titles by RK Narayan. But I am on the lookout for older copies published in the 60’s and published by the same publishing house that RK Narayan started to publish his books. I saw a copy of ‘The Dark Room’ by R.K. Narayan with a striking cover with a lady’s face that I had not seen anywhere before. Inside I noticed that it was exactly sixty years ago in 1960 by Pearl Publications. I did not even think twice before picking up and adding it to my haul that was slowly growing.

My interest in knowing more about Indian literature featuring writings from other languages means I occasionally pick up titles in other languages that I know, that is Hindi and Telugu, and also books on literature in other languages. When I first saw a copy ‘Comparative Indian Literature-Volume I’ Chief Editor: K.M. George I was hesitant to buy it. For one thing it was a huge tome running into more than seven hundred pages. Another thing was the price which was five hundred rupees. But after flipping through the copy I bought it for three hundred rupees.

I don’t think anyone who reads thrillers would not know about Frederick Forsyth’s ‘The Day of the Jackal’ and other titles. I had read ‘The Day of the Jackal’ a long time ago and I still remember some of the scenes from the book especially the scene where the assassin misses his shot because de Gaulle bends down unexpectedly. It was so well written that I must have read the book about half a dozen times and I cannot ever forget Frederick Forsyth’s name.

Curiously, I did not know much about Frederick Forsyth nor did I make any effort to learn more about the writer. I was not even aware that Forsyth had written a memoir until I saw a copy of ‘The Outsider: My Life in Intrigue’ by Frederick Forsyth at Abids. I was lucky to find it because I almost gave up going across the road to look at the books a group of sellers spread out before the GPO.

The Haul on the first Sunday of 2020 (0n 05-01-2020)

It wasn’t even a week since I had picked up more than a dozen books at the Hyderabad Book Fair that ended on the first of January, and already I was eager for more books at the Abids book bazar on the first Sunday of 2020. In fact in 2019 I had bought a total of 222 books in all, and now I am wondering when I would find the time to read all the books I had bought so far all these years. I don’t even want to think about it.

I did not find any new title at Abids on this Sunday but I was lucky enough to find yet another copy of ‘All About H.Hatterr’ by G.V. Desani. I have five copies of this title including three copies with the same cover. I don’t understand why I am hoarding this title that I have found to be one of the best books I’ve read in my life. I got this copy for only hundred rupees.

The Book Fair Haul-3

Since the past few years I have been looking only into the stalls of the second hand book sellers at the Hyderabad Book Fair and finding enough titles to fill my book shelves. This year too at the 33rd Hyderabad National Book Fair I did the same in the first two visits and also the third and final visit. There are more than two dozen second hand book stalls in this year’s fair too and by the time I was done with all of them the book fair was over. On my third and final visit to the book fair a day before it ended I found four good titles.

William Trevor is one of my favourite writers and I have almost half a dozen of his titles, and some multiple copies of particular titles because I cannot resist them. At one second hand book stall at the fair I saw a copy of ‘The Love Department’ by William Trevor. It was a beautiful copy and though I haven’t yet another title by William Trevor that I had found recently I bought ‘The Love Department’ right away.

Sometime back I found the time to finish reading ‘Look at Me’ by Anita Brookner and loved the book. I decided to be on the lookout for ‘Hotel du Lac’ by Anita Brookner. But I found a nice copy of ‘The Bay of Angels’ by Anita Brookner at another stall and bought it. I don’t know when I will finally get around to reading it when I have dozens of book to be read.

I don’t want to miss anything by Joan Didion, and no one would. I found a copy of ‘A Book of Common Prayer’ by Joan Didion at a stall I don’t remember the name of and bought it.

The last find of the 33rd Hyderabad National Book Fair was a copy of‘The Eye of the Wind’ by Peter Scott. It was an autobiography and at first I mistook Peter Scott for Paul Scott. When I read that Peter Scott was a naturalist, adventurer etc I bought the book.

The Delhi Haul on 31-12-2019

In 2019 I had been to Delhi thrice on work and just when I was thinking I may not have to make another trip it turned out I had to spend the last two days of 2019 in Delhi. I reached Delhi on the 30th which was said to be one of the coldest days in the past 100 years but I did not find it that cold. The next day after completing my work which was meeting someone for just thirty minutes in an office close to CP I went to a second hand book seller- Anil Book Corner, to check if I can find anything interesting.

I found a copy of ‘The Love of a Good Woman’ by Alice Munro with the bottom half of the front cover torn off. But the torn cover and the fact that I had already bought something close to more than two hundred books during the year did not deter me from buying it.

The Book Fair Haul-2

The first visit to the 33rd Hyderabad Book Fair on the very first day yielded only four books but my second visit a few days later got me more than double in the haul. If the first visit was a hurried one rushing from one stall to another and grabbing whatever caught the eye the second visit was a more leisurely and deliberate one. I found these nine fantastic titles but I don’t remember the names of the stalls where I found them except that they were all stalls selling only second hand boooks.

A long time back I had found a copy of ‘Fires’ by Raymond Carver and if my memory serves me well it was at a similar book fair where I found it. On the second visit I found a copy of ‘Where I am Coming From’ by Raymond Carver that I got for a hundred rupees.

In the same stall I found a nice copy of ‘Reflections’ by Graham Greene. It is a collection of his essays.

A few years back I had seen a copy of ‘The Country of the Pointed Firs’ by Sarah Orne Jewett at Abids that I somehow did not pick up. The next time I went to look for it I couldn’t find it and I felt foolish for letting it go. However at the book fair I found it and got it for fifty rupees

I buy whatever travel books I come across and about a quarter of my collection of books are travel titles. One of these is by Eric Newby- ‘A Short Walk in the Hindukush’ which I liked very much . When I saw a copy of ‘A Merry Dance Around the World’ by Eric Newby I grabbed it. I was thrilled when I saw another title by him. I found a beautiful copy of ‘On the Shores of the Mediterranean’ by Eric Newby and bought it.

I had come across the name Otessa Moshfegh several times online and wondered if I would ever find anything written by that author. When I saw a copy of ‘Eileen’ by Otessa Moshfegh I did not think twice and bought it without even bothering to read the blurbs at the back.

Another classic that was missing from my shelves was ‘Brideshead Revisited’ by Evelyn Waugh and when I saw a nice copy of it I bought it right away.

In one of the stalls set up by someone from Mumbai I spotted a copy of ‘A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali’ by Gil Courtemanche, and bought it after reading the blurbs on the back cover. Since it was a Penguin title I would have bought it anyway.

More than half of the second hand book stalls at the Book Fair were put up by those who are regular sellers at the Abids Sunday book bazaar. Almost all of them are known to me and when one of them asked me if I had found anything good in his stall I picked up a copy of ‘Modern Indian Short Stories’ just to please him. I already have a copy of this title and I do not understand why I did not pick up some other title.