Not very long back, in fact after
reading ‘Balkan Ghosts’ by Robert D. Kaplan sometime last year, I developed a
desire to know more about what happened in other parts of the world, and what
is happening now. In short, history and geo-politics is what interests me of
late. Fortunately I found more such books by other writers most of them
journalists. Though I haven’t read all such books that I‘ve managed to buy I am
glad I had decided to read such titles because it increases my understanding of
the events in different parts of the world.
Each such title that I read makes me want to read more such books so I
buy all such books whenever I come across them.
Last Sunday at Abids I spotted a mammoth book and at first I was hesitant to even look at it. But when I looked at the cover I decided to buy it though the first few pages were damaged a bit. It was a copy of ‘The Great War for Civilization-The Conquest of the Middle East’ by Robert Fisk. Right away I knew it was a great title and the blurb on the cover seemed to strengthen my feeling.
Sometime ago I had been lucky to
find a beautiful copy of ‘Meditations’ by Marcus Aurelius that I now cannot
find in my shelves. I do not remember reading it but I feel that I was lucky to
find it. I had read about it in ‘English August’ by Upamanyu Chatterjee in
which the main character refers to it. Also very recently, last month in fact,
I had found a title in the ‘Penguin Books Great Ideas’ series, small books that
easily fit in a small bag and very convenient to read while travelling. It was
a copy of ‘Why I Write’ by George Orwell that I bought for a hundred rupees at
Abids. At Abids again last Sunday I came across a beautiful copy of
‘Meditations’ by Marcus Aurelius with a cover I couldn’t take my eyes off and
bought it.
I don’t really know why but I
keep buying several copies of a few titles that I liked. I also buy copies of
some books I haven’t read. One such book is ‘An End to Suffering’ by Pankaj
Mishra that I found some time ago. This is another title I haven’t read yet I
bought another copy I saw last Sunday at Abids. The reason why I bought it was
that it was a hardcover copy that was for sale for just fifty rupees. It was in
good condition so I picked it up.
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