The Sunday Haul (on 17/01/2021)

Many years ago, perhaps two and half decades ago, I had jotted a title in a notebook I was maintaining at that time. The title was ‘Tales of the Hasidim’ by Martin Buber but I forgot where I had read the title now. But the notebook remains and I come across this title in a list of books I wanted to read. Last Sunday the first title I found was a nice copy of ‘Souls on Fire’ by Eli Wiesel. I know the name Eli Wiesel and that the author had won a Nobel Prize. But I do not remember the titles of his books. Anyway when I flipped through the pages of ‘Souls of Fire’ I came across the word Hasidim. Of course, I was curious to know what Hasidim was and bought the book.

Of all the genres of books I am mad about books about books tops the list. In the nearly thirty years of my visits to the Abids second hand book market I have found only a few books on books and just a couple on collecting books. So when I came across a copy of ‘Understanding Book Collecting’ by Grant Uden that a seller displayed on the pavement I naturally became very excited. It was a beautiful copy, a hardcover title with the jacket and published in 1983 by Antique Collectors Club, UK.

My next stop was a seller who, in recent weeks, has begun selling titles of the 60’s and there appeared to be many interesting ones he had. Last Sunday I picked up four interesting titles from his pile. Incidentally, a couple of years ago I had found my first copy of ‘The Friends of Eddie Coyle’ by George V. Higgins at this same seller. Last Sunday I found my second copy at the same place! This one looked older and had a picture of the hero from the film. I jumped at it and picked it up.

A long time ago, nearly three decades ago a friend lent me a copy of ‘Summer of 42’ by Herman Raucher that I did not read for a long time. But when I read it I realized it was a wonderful book and over the subsequent years I read and reread the book a number of times. Then, a couple of years back I found my own copy of the same title and later found a couple more copies with the same cover and in total I have about four copies. Last Sunday at Abids I found my fifth copy!

Under the copy of ‘Summer of 42’ by Herman Raucher I found another title by Herman Raucher. It was ‘A Glimpse of Tiger’ that I decided to buy since I haven’t read anything else by Herman Rauchter other than ‘Summer of 42.’ The treasure wasn’t yet over because I saw another title that I knew I had to buy.

It was the cover of ‘It Started in Naples’ by Saul Cooper that made me buy the interesting title with an even more interesting blurb. I bought all these four titles for a hundred and fifty rupees.