The Sunday Haul (on 21-02-2021)

Some days one simply gets very lucky. Last Sunday was one like that when I got quite lucky with the books I managed to find.  If you are a kid in India you would have been told about the Panchatantra tales or read them somewhere or the other. I too read these tales in the Tinkle comics when I was in school so they are a part of life. But I haven’t read them all at one place and was actually wishing I could find all the Panchatantra tales at one place. I never found such a book until last Sunday when I saw a copy of ‘Panchatantra’ by A.N.D. Haksar with an attractive cover and published by the National Book Trust and picked it up.

I also spotted a ‘Vintage’ title which ‘Touching the Void’ by Joe Simpson. It was about his ‘terrifying’ adventure in the Peruvian Andes when he was presumed to be dead. I bought it since it was described as a ‘classic’ for just eighty rupees. It is another book on mountaineering adventures that I have bought in addition to a few other titles that I have on my shelf waiting to be read.  I don’t know when I will read all these titles.

But the luckiest find was for the last. I saw a book with a yellow cover and when I took a close look I was thrilled to find that it was ‘The New York Review of Books Anthology 1963/93’ that I picked off the pavement as fast as I could. If finding this book was a lucky thing then getting it for an unimaginable price was even luckier. This book was with a seller who is not at all bothered about what he is selling and quotes really cheap rates not exceeding hundred rupees whatever the book, and that was how I got this title for only fifty rupees.

Later when I went through the anthology I found that it had sixteen essays many famous names such as Hannah Arendt, Susan Sontag, Isaiah Berlin, Joan Didion, and others. I am super thrilled that I found this gem.

The Sunday Haul (on 14-02-2021)

One thing that keeps the passion for books burning is the excitement of discovering authors you haven’t heard about before.  It is what keeps me coming back to Abids every Sunday to look for something to brighten up my life. I found many wonderful titles and also wonderful writers at Abids during my Sunday browse on the pavements. Last Sunday I spotted another book with an intriguing cover and picked it up. It was a beautiful copy of ‘The Swinging Bridge’ Ramabai Espinet, a name I haven’t come across before anywhere. The fact that it was a Penguin title reinforced my decision to pick it up.  I got it for fifty rupees only.

I had found ‘Zen and the Art of Writing’ by Ray Bradbury shortly after I had read about it in a book about writing. At that time I was not aware that Ray Bradbury had written other books. Then I read about ‘Fahrenheit 451’ by Ray Bradbury whenever there was a discussion about book burning.  A few years later I found a copy of it and last Sunday I spotted another copy with a different cover and picked it up. It was in a heap of books selling for only twenty rupees so I bought it for the cover and also because it was coming cheap.

I am finding it a bit difficult to express the agony I felt all these years trying to find something by Vijay Nambisan. Ever since I read one of his poems long back I had been looking for his books especially ‘These Were My Homes’ and ‘First Infinities’ that I kept reading about too often. Finally, last Sunday on the way back home from Abids I stopped to check out the books laid out on the pavement on the corner of the RTC X Roads and found a nice copy of ‘Language as an Ethic’ by Vijay Nambisan that I got for just thirty rupees.

Until recently I thought that these were the only books on books and reading by Indian authors; ‘The Groaning Shelf ‘ by Pradeep Sebastian, ‘Would You Like Some Bread with that Book’ by Veena Venugopal, ‘The Girl Who Ate Books’ by Nilanjana Roy, ‘Off the Shelf’ by Sridhar Balan, until I came across ‘Bookless in Baghdad’ by Shashi Tharoor.  On the cover it said ‘and other writings about reading’ which was what made me claim it on an online sale. I do not understand why I did not read about this title anywhere before.  Maybe it was my mistake not to have paid much attention to Tharoor’s titles. Anyway now that I have got it, a hardcover edition, I am glad I have one more title to add to the small pile of books by Indian authors on books and reading.

The Sunday Haul (on 07-02-2021)

I had been reading about the ‘Balkan Trilogy’ by Olivia Manning on Twitter quite a few times in the past couple of days. I wondered why I had not come across this title at Abids or anywhere. As if in answer to my prayer I came across a nice copy of ‘Fortunes of War’ Volume II of The Levant Trilogy by Olivia Manning. It was the first book I saw as soon as I reached Abids and began my rounds of the sellers. I was very pleased that I found a nice title to start with, and also extremely pleased that I got it for just hundred rupees.

Many years ago, sometime in 2011, I had found a copy of ‘This Boy’s Life’ by Tobias Wolff and picked it up on a hunch though I hadn’t heard of Tobias Wolff or his titles until then. After I read the harrowing memoir I decided to look for his books. But it was a long time before I found another Tobias Wolff title, of all the places, in Dehradun. I found a nice copy of ‘The Pharaoh’s Army’ of which I had read about a little before I found it. Then a few years later, on a Sunday morning at Daryagunj market in Delhi I found another book of short stories- Our Story Begins. I also found a copy of ‘Hunters in the Snow’ by Tobias Wolff at Select in Bengaluru in 2015. Last Sunday I found another copy of the same title at Abids. I picked it up since I wanted to give it to a friend. I got it for just thirty rupees.

I also found yet another copy of the war classic- ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ by Erich Maria Remarque. I had found it and read it soon after and was so impressed that I picked up another copy that I came across afterwards. Now again last Sunday I came across another copy in a heap selling for only twenty rupees. I picked it up to send it to the same friend for whom I had picked up the Tobias Wolff title.

The Sunday Haul (on 31-01-2021)

This year, in January alone, I managed to buy thirty six books. Most of these were titles that I picked up at the Sunday Abids secondhand books market, and a few from sales on WhatsApp groups of some sellers. As if this weren’t enough I went to Abids last Sunday too, as usual, and found four more titles. Curiously, I buy second or third copies of a title that I already have and found it to be extremely good after reading it. I was very impressed by ‘Ghachar Ghochar’ by Vivek Shanbag that I had read a couple of years ago and told almost everyone I know who reads that a wonderful book it was. Whenever I was asked which was the best book I’ve read recently I would say ‘Ghachar Ghochar’ by Vivek Shanbag. So when I found another copy of ‘Ghachar Ghochar’ by Vivek Shanbag selling for just fifty rupees I snatched it like I had found a diamond on the ground.

In the last week and on the last day of 2020, a bibliophile friend I made online, sent me a copy of a travel title. It was ‘The Lost Heart of Asia’ by Colin Thubron. I had another title by Thubron- Behind the Wall, his book on China. Last Sunday I spotted a nice copy of another title by the same author. It was a copy of ‘Journey into Cyprus’ by Colin Thubron that I got for just seventy rupees. Now I have to decide which title to read first. I am thinking of ‘The Lost Heart of Asia’ to read first.

Sometime back I had found a copy of an Elena Ferrante title that I am yet to read. The writer is such a rage that I cannot find any second hand copies of her titles, maybe because the readers do not like to part with their copies. But last Sunday at the seller who stands before the General Post Office in Abids I spotted a nice copy of ‘Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay’ by Elena Ferrante. I got it for 250.

In a heap of books selling for fifty rupees near Bata I found a copy of ‘The TimeOut Book of London Short Stories’ that I decided to buy. When I looked at the back cover there was a sticker of ‘Blossom Books’ of Bengaluru on it. It is edited by Maria Lexton and has twenty six stories by writers like Neil Gaman, Julie Burchill, Clive Barker, Will Self, Hilary Mantel, Nick Hornby, Adam Thorpe and a few others.