The Sunday Haul (on 22-08-2021)

 

After Chinua Achebe, Ngugi is my favourite African writer. His first title that I found was ‘Devil On the Cross,’ and recently I attended an event in Hyderabad where he was the chief guest. I was thrilled to get his signature on a copy of ‘Dreams in the Time of War’ and ‘Petals of Blood’ that I had carried with me to the event.  Over the years I have managed to find quite a few Ngugi titles at Abids mostly, and last Sunday I saw a copy of ‘Weep Not, Child’ by Ngugi Wa Thiong’O that was in an okay condition. I got it for only fifty rupees from a miserly seller.

There are very few, not even a handful, travelogues by Indian writers. Recently I have found ‘Detours’ by Salil Tripathi, and am in the process of getting another such title. But last Sunday I found a nice copy of ‘If it’s Monday then it Must be Madurai’ by Srinath Perur of which I had heard a lot. I have been looking for this title since long so when I found it at last in Abids I was quite excited. I am waiting for another travel book that I bought on a WhatsApp sale last week, to be delivered. The book is 'All the World's a Spittoon' by Sumit Sawhny. My collection of travelogues by Indian writers is slowly growing and one day I will post a blog about them. 

 

The Sunday Haul (on 15-08-2021)

In a continuing quest to learn how to cook I keep buying books about it. Over the years I have managed to gather a couple of dozens of such cookbooks and other books related to cooking.

Last Sunday for some reason both the titles I found at Abids turned out to be related to cooking.  The first find was a nice hardcover copy of ‘The Flavor of Spice’ by Marryam H. Reshii.

 

Lying just beside it was a copy of ‘Tiffin’ by Rukmini Srinivas which also I picked up though I already have a copy at home. I got both these titles for three hundred rupees. Both of them were in quite good condition looking almost new. 

The Sunday Haul (on 08-08-2021)

Blog Anniversary: The blog is now in its 14th year! Forgot to mention in my previous post. 

After a record haul of nine books the previous Sunday I managed to repeat the same feat last Sunday too.  I simply couldn’t resist the books I saw on the pavements. Some of them were titles I already have but after I saw them I had to buy them more so when they were titles by Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.

However, the first title I came across at Abids last Sunday was a nice copy of ‘The Hungry Years’ by William Leith. The sub-title said ‘Confessions of a Food Addict’ and though I am not a food addict or a foodie I wanted to read it to know how it felt to be addicted to food.

 
A couple of weeks ago I had bought a book called ‘Arabs’ by David Lamb who had also written a book called ‘The Africans’ that I had bought long back and had read twice. David Lamb’s accounts of his travels in various African nations and their politics impressed me. I thought I would expect the same kind of insights in ‘The Arabs’ and so I had bought it. But I haven’t yet read it. Last Sunday at Abids I saw a copy of ‘From Beirut to Jerusalem’ by Thomas L Friedman that seemed a good enough book to read along with ‘The Arabs’ by David Lamb to get a complete picture of the Middle East. I got ‘From Beirut to Jerusalem’ by Thomas L Friedman for just fifty rupees.

 

A few steps down the road and I came to another seller where I stood rooted to the spot my eyes fixed on the books spread out on the pavement. There were half a dozen fantastic titles I wanted to buy right away. It did not matter that half of them were titles I already had. They were all in good condition and looked almost new. It was impossible to resist so I got down on my knees to gather them all before anyone could do so.

There were two Dashiell Hammett titles: ‘The Big Knockover’ and ‘The Dain Curse’ that I already had two copies. Then there were three titles by Raymond Chandler: ‘Trouble is My Business’, ‘The Simple Art of Murder’ and ‘The Long Goodbye’ all which I already have. I did not want to leave them behind so I took them along with a copy of ‘Pop…1280’ by Jim Thompson. Only very recently I had bought a copy of Jim Thompson’s ‘A Swell Looking Bird’ online. All of these titles came to me for one thousand rupees. But that was not the end of the day’s excitement.

At one of the sellers who keep their wares on the road in front of the General Post Office at Abids, I spotted a title that made my heart jump. I saw a nice copy of ‘The Hunters’ by James Salter.  But I had to be very careful for this seller was a clever one. If you showed the slightest interest in the book he would quote a high price. So I casually picked up the book as if I was not really interested in it, flipped through the pages and asked him the price. Luckily I was able to get it at a reasonable price of Rs 130.

 

The Sunday Haul (on 01-08-2021)

There are some books I don’t remember buying so I end up buying them again until I find out that I had bought that book before. Last Sunday at Abids I saw a copy of ‘The Confessions of Nat Turner’ by William Styron that I do not clearly remember buying but somehow I felt I had it at home. Nevertheless  I did not want to miss buying it so I picked it up.

A few years ago I had bought a nice copy of ‘Almost French’ by Sarah Turnbull that I remember reading and also giving it away. Later I realized I should not have given it away since I wanted to read it again. So last Sunday luck smiled on me and I found a nice copy of Almost French’ by Sarah Turnbull that I got for just fifty rupees only.

I had seen a copy of a ‘Rogue Male’ by Geoffrey Household somewhere on a seller’s WhatsApp group but someone claimed it before I could. I was curious to read the book and not soon after missing it online I came across a copy at Abids last Sunday. It was one of the four books I picked up from one seller. I read it after I got home and the main character in it reminded me of one of the killers in Jake Arnott's "He Kills Coppers' that I had read long back. 

 

The second book I found was a copy of ‘The Cat’s Paw’ by James Heron that appeared to be a good book on the face of it though I had not heard of the title or the author before.

 

The third book I found was a copy of ‘Lovers and Tyrants’ by Francine du Plessix Gray. I vaguely remember the author and I picked up this title too on the hunch that it might be a good read.

On the way home at Chikkadpally I stopped at a seller and at once spotted a nice copy of ‘Collected Poems-1952-1988’ Nissim Ezekiel.  While in junior college during 1979-81 we had ‘Night of the Scorpion’ in the English course taught by a short, long haired lecturer whose name I cannot remember now. The way he explained the poem has stayed in my mind and since then I have been collecting poems by Ezekiel and other Indian poets. I was terribly glad to find all of Nissim Ezekiel’s poems in one place.

In the same pile was a copy of ‘Inishfallen, Fare Thee Well- Autobiography: Book 4’ by Sean O’Casey, the Irish dramatist. I have heard of his name before but haven’t found or read any of his books. It was sufficient that he was Irish for me to pick up this autobiography.

I am a fan of Graham Greene and have almost all his titles except ‘In Search of a Character: Two African Journals’ by Graham Greene that I have heard of only recently. I had thought it would be a normal sized book of around 200 pages. But this turned out to be a slim volume but nevertheless I am terribly pleased that I found this title. I had not expected to find this book anywhere.

 

I had read about ‘The Vermilion Boat’ by Sudhin N. Ghose somewhere very recently but do not recollect where it was. But this copy, a hardcover one, with beautiful illustration on the title page was a fascinating one so I took it.