The Sunday Haul (on 25 October 2020)

Last Sunday turned out to be a festive one since the festival of Dasara fell on the same day. It meant that the shops were open and many sellers were not in their usual places. However they were all there on Sunday which happened to be bright and sunny after a long spell of rains. I got there before noon and commenced my usual round. I did not plan to buy many books and so tried not to be drawn by the many interesting titles I saw. But at one seller I saw a title that roused my curiosity beyond normal levels. I saw a copy of ‘Kulu’ by Penelope Chetwode. While leafing through the book I read that Penelope Chetwode’s husband was john Betjeman, the famous English poet. That was enough to make me grab the book apart from the fact that the book itself was about a place in India.

After I discovered WG Sebald and his books I wanted to read all that he had written. ‘The Rings of Saturn’ was the first book by Sebald that I found long back. Afterwards I found another copy of the same book and also came across ‘Austerlitz’ in Bengaluru a couple of years back. But I do not have his ‘Vertigo’ that I am yet to find. However, last Sunday while returning home from Abids I stopped to look at the books at Chikkadpally and spotted a copy of ‘The Emigrants’ by WG Sebald. This copy had a different cover than the copy I had found earlier. But that wasn’t the reason I bought it but to possess another copy of a book by a wonderful writer. I bought it for sixty rupees only.

The Sunday Haul (on 18/10/2020)

The wet spell in Hyderabad seemed never ending. It’s been raining and raining all the time since the past couple of weeks with short spells of dry weather. It did not rain in the morning last Sunday when I started for Abids.

In my early life I had nearly become a journalist. I still feel I would have made a good journalist though how I came to that conclusion I do not know. I like to read accounts by journalists of their trips, assignments, and experiences. I do not remember now how many such books by journalists I have but I do not fail to pick up such books whenever I come across them. Last Sunday at Abids I spotted a thick tome, and it was a copy of ‘The Ninety Nine Names of God’ by Judith Miller.

Since childhood I’ve tried to follow world events, and only now I am able to make sense of somethings that have been going on since then. However, the wars in the Middle East were something I didn’t quite understand so when I saw that ‘The Ninety Nine Names of God’ by Judith Miller was about the Middle East I felt excited that I had found something that would clear my confusion. It was a lengthy book, all of … pages and was thicker than the average brick. Nevertheless I bought it. I had to pay two hundred rupees for it but it appeared worth every rupee.

I remember seeing a lot about ‘Circe’ by Madeline Miller sometime back. However I forgot about the book and the hype around it until I came across a copy at Abids. I picked it up to take a closer look. It was an almost brand new copy and there were more than a dozen pages of blurbs at the front of the book. I decided to buy it and got it for a hundred rupees. I don’t know when I would find the time to read it but I am glad I took it.

I wasn’t at all surprised to see that the sellers put ‘Each book Rs 10’ written on pieces of cardboard that they places before heaps of books during the pandemic. There were two heaps with Rs 20 and Rs 30 boards. In the heap selling for thirty rupees I spotted a copy of ‘The Cape Cod Lighter’ by John O’Hara. I picked it up and saw that it was a collection of twenty three of his short stories: Appearances, The Bucket of Blood; the Butterfly; Claude Emerson, Reporter; The Engineer; The Father; The First Day; Jurge Dulrumple; Justice; The Lesson; Money; The Nothing Machine; Pat Collins; The Professors; A Short Walk from the Station; Sunday Morning; The Sun-Dodgers; Things You Really Want; Two Turtledoves; Winter Dance; The Women of Madison Avenue; You Don’t Remember Me; Your Fah Neefah Neeface.

Then in the next heap of books I saw a copy of ‘The Power and the Glory’ Graham Greene that I picked up not because I was getting it cheap but it is Graham Greene and I cannot resist anything by him.

The Sunday Haul (on 04/10/2020)

 

Last Sunday at Abids I realized how stupid I could be sometimes. The previous Sunday I had noticed a tall stack of titles with a seller. I had knelt on the ground and checked out the books one by one. I found titles by Julian Symons, Helen McInnes, Raymond Chandler, Kingsley Amis, Leslie Charteris, Allan Sillitoe- titles that I should have grabbed right away. But surprisingly, I did not feel like buying them and foolishly thought that I would find them the next Sunday i.e., last Sunday. So when I hurried to that seller praying that the books would still be there I was shocked when the seller told me they had all been sold!

I felt angry at myself, and in that state I went around Abids not buying books until a long time. Finally the disappointment wore off and I spotted my first title, a copy of ‘Passage to England’ by Nirad C Chaudhuri. I haven’t read anything by Nirad Chaudhuri so far and I am thinking of starting to read this book next.

At the next seller I picked up a copy of ‘The Chinese Assassin’ by Anthony Grey. The cover seemed attractive and promised to be a good read so I took it. I don’t know why but I seem to be coming across James M. Cain titles too often. Only a couple of weeks ago I had found a copy of ‘Double Indemnity’ at a store and last Sunday I came across another James M. Cain title- ‘Past All Dishonour’ by James M. Cain.

The last find was a nice copy of ‘Iris and Her Friends’ by John Bayley, Iris Murdoch’s husband. I had seen a copy earlier with another seller but he asked for an astronomical sum for it and so hadn’t bought it at that time. Now after a couple of months I have come across another copy that I bought at hundred rupees. It is a memoir of John Bayley about Iris Murdoch’s illness.