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.