The Sunday Haul (on 25-04-2021)

After missing my Sunday visits to the Abids second hand book bazaar for two consecutive Sundays,  I was able to go there last Sunday. I had been in Ooty for two weeks on work and though I found a couple of good books in a small bookstore there I missed the slow and lazy browse at Abids. I was glad I was back in Hyderabad though it was pretty hot compared to the cool weather in Ooty.  I felt at home walking down the road looking at the hundreds of books spread out on the pavements and seeing the familiar faces of the regular sellers at Abids. Though I had been away for only two weeks it felt like ages.

Travel titles are what I am most interested in and most of my time is taken up with travelogues by writers like Pico Iyer, Kaupuscinski, Sebald, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Freya Stark and several other wonderful writers. All this reading has only made me curious about the history and also the geography of the places I read about in these books. I do not miss any book that gives a detailed history of any place I am familiar with (of course, only in books) so when I saw a copy of ‘White Nile’ by Alan Moorehead I grabbed it. I haven’t read anything by Alan Moorehead so far nor have I read much about the White Nile so this title piqued my interest and I am itching to read it as soon as I finish reading ‘The Great Railway Bazaar’ by Paul Theroux which I am half way through.

It was only recently that I read somewhere about John McGahern. ‘Amongst Women’ by John McGahern who is an Irish writer. I had read a few Irish writers and found their writing to be very powerful. I do not know how I missed knowing about John McGahern but I am glad at last I found a title by him. The blurb by John Banville says it is ‘A Masterpiece’ which is making me want to read it right away which I might do.

I got these two books for hundred rupees each which is a bit more than what I pay usually but I did not mind paying it since I found these two wonderful titles. 

The Ooty Haul

Only a few people are as lucky as I am. I was sent to Ooty on work where I had to stay for almost two weeks. It was a welcome break though there was the constant fear of catching the virus. The weather was pleasant and where I stayed, the Queen’s Palace in Tamizhagam, was luxury the work itself was a bit stressful. I was there to oversee trekking programme of 40 All India Service officers who were undergoing a Foundation Course in our Institute. Early in the morning I would go out to a camp around Ooty, and again in the evening to check on how they were doing. I visited quite a few picturesque places like Sholur, Theppakadu, Pandiar, Naduvottam, and Porthimund. Since I knew in December last itself that I would be making this trip I had bought an iPhone as a birthday gift to self. I got to click some nice photographs.

Wherever I go I look out for bookstores. On my last visit with family in 2017 I couldn’t find the time to shop for books. But this time I was lucky to spot a bookstore while I was driving around in Ooty. I spotted ‘Church Hill Book Shop’ near Charing Cross and went in. It was a small store, with just a couple of shelves containing a few hundred books. I thought I would not find anything but I couldn’t believe it when I found two wonderful titles on my first visit to the book shop.

The first find was a nice copy of ‘Cheating at Canasta’ by William Trevor. I never imagined I would find a William Trevor title in such a small store. It is a collection of short stories and I got the book for a hundred and eighty rupees. I was pleased that I had found a bit of treasure. 

Then I spotted a beautiful copy of ‘The River at the Centre of the World’ by Simon Winchester. This was a travelogue about China, another one in my collection of books on China. It had a beautiful cover and I was terribly glad that I had found another wonderful title. This book too I got for a hundred and eighty rupees. Finding these two titles took away the sense of loneliness and stress I had been feeling after being away from home for more than a week.  I resolved to visit the store again whenever I had the time. 

Luckily a couple of days later I got the time to drop in at the book shop once again. On this second visit I found another wonderful title. I spotted a copy of ‘Step by Step’ by Simon Reeve. I wouldn’t have known who Simon Reeve was if I hadn’t watched his programme on BBC one day by accident. I watched his episodes on Greece, Russia, and Turkey I guess before I was hooked to his show. It was sheer luck that I came across ‘Step by Step’ which, as the cover says, is a sort of memoir. This too I got for a hundred and eighty rupees. 

The Sunday Haul (on 04-04-2021)

The Saturday before last when I dropped in at a hospital to enquire about the vaccination process I didn’t know I would end up getting my first dose of the vaccine. It happened so quickly and so smoothly that I was surprised and also very pleased. However in the evening I developed a fever and spent the whole of Sunday in bed. Which is why there was no blog post last Friday about the Sunday haul because I had to give Abids a miss. I spent a miserable week waiting for yet another Sunday.

After a week’s deprivation of books last Sunday I was terribly pleased to return to Abids. Add to that pleasure it wasn’t as hot as I had expected since the temperature was touching 40 degrees C in Hyderabad. I went around eyes darting around the hundreds and thousands of books laid out on the pavements of Abids hoping something would catch my attention.

Half hour of such browsing I spotted a copy of ‘Kitchen Privileges’ by Mary Higgins Clark which turned to be her memoir. I am a sucker for memoirs and autobiographies of writers and have several dozens of such titles and so picked it up though I have never read anything by Mary Higgins Clark. Next time I find anything by her I am going to pick it up and read it before reading ‘Kitchen Privileges.’ It was a hard cover copy with jacket in good condition and I paid only seventy rupees for it.

My next find also turned out to be a sort of memoir. I found a copy of ‘Performing Flea’ by PG Wodehouse on a wooden shelf with a seller in the Hollywood lane. Though the seller had written 90/- on the front page he gave it to me for just fifty rupees. Sometime back I had found the same