The Sunday Haul (on 31-10-2021)

Last Sunday it was the Sunday before Diwali so all the regular stores at Abids were open. Some of the second hand booksellers had shifted from their regular spots. The shoppers mingled with the people who had come to look at the books spread out on the pavements. It was a festive scene that wasn’t there the previous Diwali because of the pandemic. The shopkeepers must have been happy so was I because I came home with five good titles that I found during the hour and half that I spent looking at all the books spread out on the pavements of Abids.

 After almost thirty years of hanging around the second hand book market in Abids every Sunday the booksellers know me well enough to show me some books that they have kept aside. Last Sunday one such seller stopped me and took out a number of books from a sack to show me. Out of those I found a nice copy of ‘The Eye of the Storm’ by Patrick White. I had seen a Patrick White title a couple of months ago but chose not to buy it because it appeared a large tome and was also not in a good condition. But the copy of ‘The Eye of the Storm’ was in a decent condition and I decided to add it to my haul.

I already have a copy of ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’ by James Joyce that I had found some time ago. So I was hesitant to buy a second copy but the look of eager anticipation on the seller’s face made me buy it. This seemed a better copy than the one I already have and that I plan to give to someone who hasn’t read it.

Though I haven’t cooked more than a dozen times in my life I haven’t lost the desire to cook, and also the desire to read anything connected with cooking and food. This desire has led to me to buy almost a hundred books of recipes and food related writing some of which I am yet to read. So when I came across a copy of ‘In Buddha’s Kitchen’ by Kimberly Snow I picked it up for a closer look. It was a hardcover title to begin with and I got it for fifty rupees.

There are a couple of things in life I cannot resist doing. One is buying multiple copies of titles that I have found to be very interesting and that I greatly enjoyed reading. So last Sunday when I spotted a nice copy of ‘The Groaning Shelf’ by Pradeep Sebastian on a shelf on the pavement I couldn’t walk past without buying it. I already own three (or is it four?) copies of this wonderful book by India’s foremost bibliophile but I had to buy this one too so I ended up buying it as well. I got it for hundred rupees.

Though I am very interested in solving crossword puzzles sadly I do not find much time to do it daily. Which meansI am not very good at solving them since one can get better at solving crosswords only by doing it regularly. I keep trying to improve my skills at solving crosswords and one way is to read up on it. The last title I bought at Abids last Sunday was a copy of ‘Crosswords- How to Solve Them’ by Ruth Crisp that I got quite cheap at only twenty rupees.