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.