A Midweek Haul and The Sunday Haul (on 21-06-2020)

A MidWeek Haul:

While at home during the Lockdown and unable to visit bookstores I resolved to make a round of all the second hand bookstores in Hyderabad. Sometime during the last week I dropped in at the Best Book Centre branch in Lakdikapul. There I found two titles that I bought right away.
I have read very few titles by Ngaio Marsh and found them interesting. I like to read memoirs and autobiographies by writers and have about two dozen such titles with me. So when I saw a copy of ‘Black Beech and Honey Dew’ by Ngaio Marsh with her picture on the cover I picked it up. It was her autobiography and I was thrilled that I had found another autobiography to add to my growing collection.

Right now there is a lot going on about the BLM protests and it looks like it is not going to fade away any time in the near future. ‘Mandingo’ was one book about slavery that absolutely horrified me with its savagery and violence. I am yet to read any of Toni Morrison’s titles and plan to read them now when it is the time to learn more about such lives. At the Best store I found a copy of ‘Coming of Age in Mississippi’ by Anne Moody, another autobiography.

The Sunday Haul

Last Sunday I was at Abids again ignoring the pleas by the family not to step out. Here the cases are rising and things look scary, and it would appear dumb to go out at such a time. But you know how I am when it comes to books. Reason doesn’t take the back seat, it isn’t even allowed to get on my bike when I go to Abids. Anyway, I take along a small bottle of sanitizer that I take out and squirt on my hands after I handle the books, and of course, I wear a mask. Thus prepared I went to Abids last Sunday. It was cloudy though when I reached and began to go around looking for books to buy.

The first title I found was a hardcover copy of ‘Beastly Tales’ by Vikram Seth. There was a stain on the cover but I bought it though I had a feeling at the back of my mind that I already have a copy.

Then a small miracle. Spread out on the pavement before an indifferent seller where a few books and my eye zoomed in on one title that stood out. It was the red cover of ‘Ex-Libris’ by Anne Fadiman. I already have three copies of this title and made it four copies by picking the one lying on the pavement.

A couple of years ago I happened to be regularly reading ‘Lifehacker’ or some such site where I read a few essays by Gretchen Rubin. I liked the style and the content since things were a bit messy in my life at that time not that they are any less messy now. I had actually seen a copy of ‘The Happiness Project’ by Gretchen Rubin around the same time and I, for some reason, did not buy it and it had disappeared when I looked for it on my next visit to Abids. But last Sunday I found another copy in the same pile of books where I found ‘Ex-Libris’ by Anne Fadiman. There were other titles I should have bought but didn’t. The most interesting thing is that I had to pay only fifty rupees for the Fadiman title.

There’s a seller at Abids who rises to meet me enthusiastically when he sees me approaching and takes out books that he has kept aside to show me. When I reached his place he showed me a copy of ‘Wolf’ by Jim Harrison. I had a vague feeling that I may have read about him but it did not strike me as something I must buy. But I thought of not leaving the seller disappointed because by then he had an eager look on his face. He thought I would buy it. Then he took out another title by the same author. It was a copy of ‘Legends of the Fall’ by Jim Harrison that the picture on the cover indicated that it was made into a movie starring Brad Pitt. So I bought them.

I had a cup of tea at Grand next to the Head Post Office and saw a copy of ‘Chronicles Vol-I’ by Bob Dylan. I don’t listen much to music but I know almost all the big names. I also remembered that Bob Dylan got the Nobel. Plus it was an autobiography, something that I don’t miss buying. I bought‘Chronicles’ by Bob Dylan

A couple of years ago I had found a very interesting collection of short stories by the renowned Tamil writer Sundara Ramaswamy. I loved the stories and sometime later I found another title by the same author but I haven’t read it yet. I knew he was one writer not to be missed. So when I saw a beautiful copy of ‘Tamarind History’ by Sundara Ramaswamy with one of the sellers at Chikkadpally I added it to my haul. But it did not come cheap since I had to pay hundred and fifty rupees for it.

There was another title that stirred a memory in my mind but somehow I did not buy it. It is a book by a Malayalam writer and next Sunday I am going to buy it. The name is M. Mukundan.

The Sunday Haul (on 14-06-2020)

This is the third Sunday after the lockdown here has been lifted here that I am going to Abids in Hyderabad in search of books. Almost all the book sellers are back on the pavement but it still feels that some are missing. There isn’t much of a crowd and that’s what is making Abids look so desolate. Some of the sellers I chatted up told me they aren’t doing much business as not many people are visiting.

I do not know about others but I am coming and buying books which is what matters to me. Last Sunday I bought five titles. I own a few books of literary criticism, something that I try to read to understand literature. Though most are academic sounding with a lot of theories I enjoy reading such books. Last Sunday I spotted a copy of ‘Axel’s Castle’ by Edmund Wilson with a seller near Hollywood shoes in the lane where I park my two wheeler. I got it for forty rupees. Leafing through the book I saw that Edmund Wilson is also the author of ‘Memoirs of Hecate County’ that I had picked up a long time ago but had not read yet.

Next find was with the same seller where I had found a copy of ‘The Friends of Eddie Coyle’ by George V. Higgins. It was another title with the same author- ‘Trust’ that I got for forty rupees. I liked ‘The Friends of Eddie Coyle’ that I started reading ‘Trust’ later in the day and finished it last night. It wasn’t as good as Eddie Coyle but interesting enough.

The 3 for 200 pile was still there but a lot diminished. But I was able to fish out three titles. The first was a nice copy of ‘Sick’ by Porochista Khakpour, and the second was a copy of ‘Scent of a Woman’ by Giovanni Arpino, and the third was a copy of ‘Going to the Wars’ by Max Hastings. It was a surprise when the seller took only a hundred and fifty rupees from me instead of 200. Sometimes I am lucky. With the money I saved I had a couple of chota samosas and a cup of chai at Grand near the GPO.

The Sunday Haul (on 07.06.2020)

If the previous Sunday at Abids it wasn’t a full house of the second hand booksellers then last Sunday it was a half-house with only a little more than half the sellers spreading out their books on the pavement. However it was more than enough for me. There weren’t many buyers around except for a few regulars like me. After weeks of being deprived of the joy of looking for books here, I felt like I was in heaven though it would be another couple of weeks before I become normal. I am buying books like there is no tomorrow. Looking at the way the Covid cases are rising and the rumour floating around who knows there could be another Lockdown which means another spell of deprivation. So I am making most of it and buying whatever looks interesting. Last Sunday I ended up buying seven wonderful titles.

Since finding a nice copy of ‘The Sorrow of War’ by Bao Ninh which was about the Vietnam war from the Vietnamese perspective I haven’t found anything from the SE Asian countries. I had found a book by Pramodeya Ananta Toer but nothing from Thailand or China. Last Sunday I found a book of short stories by a Chinese author and also a novel by a Thai writer. I found a copy of ‘Chestnuts and Other Stories’ by Xiao Qian published by Panda Books. It had twelve stories and I have no idea who Xiao Qian is.

The other book, the Thai novel was a copy of ‘The Path of the Tiger’ by Sila Khoamchai and was in beautiful condition with a lovely cover. I haven’t read anything from a Thai writer so I was quite excited finding this lovely book. I got these two books for just fifty rupees.

At another spot with another seller I saw a copy of ‘The Lighthouse’ by Alison Moore, and on the cover it was mentioned that the book was shortlisted for the 2012 Man Booker. I picked it up without a second thought. I got it for sixty rupees only.

Next I came to a heap of brand new books, all of them titles by well-known names selling three for two hundred rupees only. There were so many beautiful titles that I couldn’t decide which to buy though I would have preferred to buy all of them. But there were a couple of hundred books in that heap and I can’t afford to buy all of them and even if I bought them all there is no space at home to keep them. So I sifted through the piles carefully and picked up a nice copy of ‘Friend of My Youth’ by Amit Chaudhuri still in its plastic wrapping! It was brand, brand new and the price on the back cover said Rs 499.

Then the next find was a beautiful copy of ‘The Lost Estate’ by Henri Alain-Fournier with a stunning cover in blue and white. I had picked up a copy of this book but the title on it was ‘Le Grand Meaulnes’, and this was at Blossoms at Bangalore a few years ago. It was supposed to be a classic of French Literature and I am unable to locate my copy when I wanted to read it during the Lockdown.

I picked up this copy too because it was too beautiful to let go and added it to my growing haul. The third book was another beautiful copy of ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Love’ by Raymond Carver. It had seventeen stories in all. I was excited to find this book since I already have a copy of his ‘Fires’ and also ‘Where I am Calling From’ that I had found at the Hyderabad Book Fair earlier this year, and had been looking for since a long time. . So these were the three books I got for two hundred rupees.

On the way home I stopped at one of the sellers at Chikkadpally and spotted a copy of ‘Collected Poems: 1957-1987’ by Dom Moraes with a beautiful illustration on the cover. I did not even look inside to see how many poems were there but bought it right away and paid fifty rupees for it. Later after I got home I counted the poems in it. There were 101 poems in it divided into several sections.

The Sunday Haul

In my previous post I had predicted that the second hand book sellers would be out in full strength at Abids the next Sunday. Well, it almost happened though less than half of them were around. From two to almost ten sellers was a great improvement I thought as I went around the lanes looking for titles to pick up. It was at just one seller that I picked up the entire Sunday’s haul of five books. The previous Sunday too I had come home with a few books though they were not from Abids. But this Sunday’s haul was all from Abids.

I picked up the following titles:

‘Coolie’ by Mulk Raj Anand. It had a wonderful cover and was published in 1978.

‘Detained: A Writer’s Prison Diary’ by Ngugi. It was a hardcover title in good condition.

‘Maigret in Court’ by Simenon. Not such a great copy but I bought it nevertheless.

‘Writing Fiction’ by R.V.Cassill and ‘Making Shapely Fiction’ by Jerome Stearn because I cannot resist books on writing. All these five book I bought for three hundred rupees.

The day before I had dropped in at the ‘Unique Books’ second hand bookstore at Lakdi ka pul where I found a copy of ‘Tibetan Foothold’ by Dervla Murphy. I was looking for her ‘Full Tilt’ but hadn’t found it yet so I settled for ‘Tibetan Foothold’ since I have not read anything by Dervla Murphy till date. I got it for hundred rupees.

I am hoping next Sunday it would be a full house with all the second hand booksellers showing up.