The Haul at the Hyderabad Book Fair-1

 

The day I was waiting for eagerly for almost two years finally dawned on the 18^th of December when the 34^thHyderabad National Book Fair opened. Though I keep buying books all through the year, at Abids on Sundays and in bookstores, there’s something thrilling to look for books in the stalls at the Book Fair. I’ve been coming to the Hyderabad Book Fair for nearly three decades right from the year it began and not missing a year. Usually I end up buying a lot of books at the Book Fair and almost all of them second hand books. 

This year too it was no different as I ended up buying several books in all in the numerous visits I made to the Hyderabad Book Fair that was quite conveniently not very far from where I live. 

 

Day 1

As is my wont I landed up at the venue of the Hyderabad Book Fair on the first day hours after it was inaugurated.  I only looked in the second hand book stalls, most of them put up by the sellers at Abids. There were only a few, not more than five, second hand book sellers from other places. However I ended up buying four good titles on the first day itself and spotted many good titles that I hoped to buy in the subsequent visits I planned to make. 

 

Not so long back I had picked up a title by an author with an intriguing name. It was a nice copy of ‘Footsteps' by Pramoedya Ananta Toer. It was the second title in a quartet, and I bought it knowing it was near to impossible finding the other three titles in the quartet, after reading on the cover that Toer was an Indonesian writer with quite a reputation. The first title I saw at the book fair was a copy of ‘The Mute’s Soliloquy’ by Pramoedya Ananta Toer. I was thrilled to discover that it was a memoir as I love to read writers’ memoirs. 

 

The next find too turned out to be a memoir of a famous writer. It was a copy of ‘Memoirs’ by Kingsley Amis. Coincidentally, I have his famous writer son’s memoir too titled ‘Experience’ that I had found a few years ago in a second hand bookstore in Hyderabad. I have read it but I don’t know when I will find the time to read Kingsley Amis’ memoir. 

 

I haven’t read anything by Yukio Mishima though I have heard and read a lot about him. I hadn’t been able to find titles by this author until last week when I found a copy of ‘The Temple of the Golden Pavilion’ by Yukio Mishima in a stall run by a person from New Delhi. I got it for just hundred rupees. 

I hadn’t even covered three stalls in the fair and it was already close to closing time. There were several second hand book stalls I had to check out and I was running out of time. However I planned to visit almost every day and check out all the stalls selling second hand books in the next eleven days that the Hyderabad Book Fair would be held. I had time to check out one last stall and it was where I found the next title. I saw a beautiful copy of ‘And Yet…Essays’ by Christopher Hitchens that I grabbed right away. 

As for the prices of  the books I felt they were a bit higher but since the Book Fair didn't happen last year I guess it is reasonable for the sellers to recoup their losses during the pandemic. I have nothing to complain.

Haul on the second day's visit will be in the next post soon.

Happy New Year. 

The Sunday Haul (12-12-2021)

 I feel unreasonably guilty when the latest book by an author whose bestselling first book I haven’t yet read comes out. I had this feeling last Sunday at Abids when I came across ‘This Land is Our Land’ by Suketu Mehta whose ‘Maximum City’ a book about Bombay (now Mumbai) became the book about the city of Bombay. Actually I had found a copy but after I read a few pages I realized it was a pirated edition and threw it away. Since then I haven’t come across another good copy so it went unread. 

 I found the copy of ‘This Land is Our Land’ by Suketu Mehta with a seller who was also selling other titles @ of 3 titles for Rs 200. But this hardcover copy I got for two hundred rupees which I think is quite reasonable considering the good condition it was in. This was the only title that I found on Sunday at Abids. However I was pleased that I found a wonderful book that I had not expected to find at Abids. 

 

The 34^th Hyderabad National Book Fair is only a day away and I am eagerly waiting to go there on Saturday as soon as it is thrown open. I don’t know how many books I will end up buying but it is going to be a large number considering the fact that the book fair wasn’t held last year. 

The Sunday Haul (on 05-12-2021)

At last came the news that I had been eagerly and anxiously waiting for since the last one year. The Hyderabad Book Fair was to start from December 18 and end ten days later on the 27^th. I know I would be picking up at least a dozen books in the almost daily visits I planned to make to the Book Fair over its duration. So even as I waited anxiously for December 18^th and the many delights that would follow I couldn’t help but make another bountiful haul on my weekly visit to the second hand book market at Abids last Sunday.

There’s a seller at Abids who regularly stocks copies of only new titles that are in almost new condition. A few of them he sells at different but higher prices (but lesser than the original price on the sticker) but a large number of titles he heaps in piles that he sells for Rs 50 or Rs 100 each. Last Sunday in his pile of Rs 50 books I spotted a beautiful copy of ‘The Testament of Mary’ by Colm Toibin. When I read on the cover that it was shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize I decided to take it.

When I reached the GPO at Abids with Grand Hotel behind it I realized it had been a long time since I tasted bun-maska. After having the bun-maska amidst the noise and din of a busy Irani café, I spotted a book with an eye-catching cover with a seller a few steps away from Grand Hotel. I picked it up and saw that it was a beautiful copy of  ‘Across the Chicken Neck: Travels in Northeast India’ by Nandita Haksar. It was about author’s travels in the North East states where I had been only twice in my life- once to Nagaland to attend a workshop in Kohima. It was here that I had the rare opportunity of shaking hands with the Chief Minister of a state. A year later I was in Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh to attend another workshop. I went on a trip to Ziro valley that seemed too beautiful to believe. It was an unforgettable experience. 

My next find was in another pile of Rs 50 books with another seller in front of the Bata store. I saw a small sized book- ‘The Painter of Modern Life’ by Charles Baudelaire and added it to my haul without a second thought. 

On the way home I stopped at the first of the four sellers at Chikkadpally to take a look. The books were laid out in such a manner that only the spines faced up. But even they were arranged in a haphazard manner making it difficult to read the titles on the spine. Anyway turning my head this way and that way I managed to spot a title that I had not expected to find- ‘Our Non-Veg Cow and Other Stories’ by Mahasweta Devi translated by Paramita Banerjee, with an introduction by Nabaneeta Dev Sen. Seagull Books is the publisher of this wonderful collection of stories. 

It has the following ten stories:

Those Boys; Nyadosh, the Incredible Cow; Not a Cock and Bull Story; Phalgu’s Story; Phalgu and the Cheetah-Man; The Seven Ghosts; Khudey the Dacoit; Shivaji’s Horse; All Alone; and Chittu. 

The Sunday and Other Hauls

 

The Sunday Haul (on 28-11-2021)

 Though it was a cloudy day last Sunday but for me it was filled with a lot of brightness as I managed to find half a dozen wonderful titles on the pavements of Abids.

I have read all the books by Arun Joshi except ‘The Survivors’ that I have not been able to find so far. Not only reading all the Arun Joshi titles I’ve picked up every copy of all his novels that I have come across so far. I have multiple copies of ‘The Foreigner’, ‘The Apprentice’, ‘The Strange Case of Billy Biswas’, ‘The City and the River’ and ‘The Last Labyrinth’ on my bookshelves. Last Sunday at Abids I  was pleasantly surprised when I came across a nice copy of ‘The Foreigner’ by Arun Joshi that I instantly picked up. ‘The Foreigner’ was the first Arun Joshi title I had read and I became an instant fan of his writing.

A few years ago I had found a collection of short stories by Vaikkom Muhammad Basheer, an old tattered copy that I cherished. I was floored by Basheer’s range of themes and his writing. After that I did not come across any other Basheer title and last Sunday at last I saw a beautiful Katha India Library edition titled ‘Basheer Fictions’ edited by Vanajam Ravindran.  It is a collection of twelve stories translated from the original Malayalam into English by various translators including Geeta Dharmarajan.

The next find was another collection of short stories. I spotted a copy of ‘Things Not Seen’ by Lynna Williams in a heap of books selling for fifty rupees each. I decided to buy it when I noticed inside that it was published by Back Bay Books imprint of Little, Brown and Company. It has nine stories.

 Sometime back I had found a title by Don DeLillo and had not found the time to read it so far. Last Sunday I spotted a nice copy of ‘Underworld’ by Don DeLillo that was of a forbidding thickness. I hesitated a long time before finally deciding to buy it. However I have no idea when I would begin to read it.

I come across the name Roberto Calasso quite frequently on Twitter and I had no idea who he was until I found a copy of ‘The Unnamable Present’ by Roberto Calasso at Abids last Sunday. It was a hardcover copy with a slightly damaged jacket but otherwise in quite a good condition. It was a non-fiction title so I bought it. I got it for just a hundred rupees.

With the same buyer I also bought a copy of ‘The Way of the Strangers’ by Graeme Wood, a paperback title. I decided to buy it after I read on the back cover that Graeme Wood is a national correspondent for The Atlantic. This title was another nice find in the haul on Sunday.

 A WhatsApp Sale Haul

This was one title I wanted to read since long. At last I came across it when a seller on WA put it for sale. I immediately claimed it and luckily I got it since I was the only one who claimed it. It was a nice copy of ‘Zindaginama’ by Krishna Sobti that I received in the post a few days back. I was thrilled to see it was in a good condition. I am raring to read it but my Hindi is rusty and it would take me a couple of months to finish reading it. But I am going to read it no matter what.

The other title I claimed in the same sale was ‘The Man with the Golden Arm’ by Nelson Algren that I had read about somewhere as a book not to be missed. It is more than three hundred pages long and I wish I could find the time to finish reading the book in one sitting.