The Sunday Haul (on 20-03-2022)

Sometime back I came to a slow realization that I own several titles about/or on a few countries such as on Africa, America, the UK, the Arabs, India, South America, Tibet, and Australia. But the highest number of titles are on China with nearly a dozen titles. Last Sunday at Abids I found another superb book though not entirely about China.

It was a beautiful copy of ‘Slow Boats to China’ by Gavin Young that I almost missed spotting since it was nestled among books for children that I usually don’t look carefully at. I noticed it when I spotted the Penguin logo on the cover. I felt glad that I picked it up because there’s a blurb by Paul Theroux on the cover. After reading the Prelude I was so taken up that I was tempted to read on. But I had decided to read all titles about one country/region at one time one after the other so I could have a better understanding so I kept it alongside the other titles on China.

Somehow I was irrationally overjoyed finding the copy of ‘Slow Boats to China’ by Gavin Young though I paid a hundred and fifty rupees for it.

The Sunday Haul (on 13-03-2022)

More than two decades ago, sometime in 2000 or so, at Abids I found a copy of Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’ that had no cover and the title was written with a sketch pen on a white cover. I didn’t know it when I picked it up that reading the book would spur me on to write a novel I had in mind at that time but didn’t really have the courage or the confidence to begin writing. I still have that copy that I treasure. It was in ‘On Writing’ that I first read about ‘The Elements of Style’ by Strunk and White that Stephen King urged everyone who aspires to be a writer to read. So, aspiring writer that I was I looked around for it but did not find it until a couple of years later. It was the third edition with the classic light yellow cover with the title in brown.

Sometime later I read that the fourth edition of TEOS had come out and since there was no way I could find it right away I managed to ask a relative in the US who was visiting to get it for me. It was a hardcover copy and a brand new one. Since then I have picked up almost every copy that I came across and also have given away a few copies to people who had aspirations of writing. Last Sunday at Abids I came across another copy of the fourth edition of ‘The Elements of Style’ by Strunk & White. But this was a paperback copy and I grabbed it right away for eighty rupees. It is almost a new and pristine copy that I am pleased to have found.

Any title I see with ‘writing’ or ‘writer’ in it I pick up and it is how I have ended up buying more than two hundred titles on writing/writers. But unfortunately even after reading all of them, and even after rereading some of them my writing still remains as bad as it was before I started reading them. Anyway last Sunday at Abids I found yet another title on writing- ‘Writing in the Arts and Sciences’ eds Elaine P. Maimon and others. This was a hardbound copy that is published by Little Brown which was what made me buy it in the first place.

These second hand booksellers’ groups on WhatsApp that I have joined have regular sales, sometimes twice a week. Since I am part of a few groups there’s a sale almost every day. However I buy only a few titles that I do not usually find in Abids or in the second hand bookstores in Hyderabad. One such title that I had been looking for was ‘Following Fish’ by Samanth Subramaniam that almost everybody who has read it says it is a fantastic title and so sharpening my desire to lay my hands on it. It is one of the titles on travels in India by Indian writers that is missing and that I wanted to desperately add to my small collection of such titles. At last I managed to claim it on a sale on WhatsApp and it was delivered last week. I think I paid hundred and fifty rupees for this book.

The Sunday Haul (on 06-03-2022)

 Quite regularly I get extremely lucky at the Abids second hand book market on Sundays. Last Sunday turned out to be one such lucky one when I found not one, two or three but six wonderful titles in the couple of hours I spent browsing there. Half of them were travel titles that added to the joy. On one side was the joy of finding some extremely good titles and at the same time there was a sense of quiet panic at the addition of six more books to the disorderly pile of books at home. However, joy prevailed over the panic because nothing brings more joy than the sight of books filling up the shelves at home.

Pico Iyer happens to be one of my favorite travel writers and I have all his titles. A couple of weeks ago I saw a nice copy of ‘Falling Off the Map’ by Pico Iyer at Abids but I resisted buying it because I already have the title. Last Sunday somehow I did not want to leave it behind and picked up the copy that no one seemed to have noticed. It was a beautiful copy, unspoilt and almost new. I got it for a hundred rupees.

Another title that I was saw on and off on the shelves of a seller was a hefty copy of ‘A Mad World, My Masters’ by John Simpson. A couple of weeks ago the seller quoted an unreasonable price for it that put me off buying it though I desperately wanted to buy it. Last Sunday I was taken aback when he offered to give it to me at half the price that he had quoted earlier. Maybe he did not remember the price he had originally asked me so I bought it right away. I got this title too for a hundred rupees.

A few sellers put some books in a heap and sell them at a set price. The price ranges from Rs 20 to 3 for Rs 200. There’s a heap of Rs 20 books where I have managed to find some interesting titles. In the heap of Rs 20 heaps that a seller had I spotted a title that I wouldn’t have got for even Rs 500 anywhere. I was quite surprised when I saw a wonderful copy of ‘Every Day is for the Thief’ by Teju Cole in that heap. I picked it up the moment I saw it was a Teju Cole title. Coincidentally I am currently reading Teju Cole’s ‘Known and Strange Things’ where I first read about ‘Every Day is for the Thief’ .

When the seller is unable to sell books at prices he wants they end up in heaps of books selling for low prices such as Rs 50, Rs 100 or so. There were a couple of titles that I had been eyeing with a seller at Abids and that I couldn’t afford. Last Sunday I saw in a heap marked ‘3 for Rs 200’ that had a lot of good titles. This seller somehow stocks the latest and bestselling titles and I buy a title or two occasionally because the prices are too high. I picked up a copy of ‘Between Two Seas’ by Charles Lister that I had seen earlier. I also picked up ‘Seeing Red’ by Lina Meruane, a hardcover copy that appeared quite good after I flipped through a few pages and read a few paragraphs at random.

I also picked up a nice copy of ‘Days of Awe’ by A.M. Homes that comes with a great blurb on the cover by Zadie Smith.  

The Sunday Haul (27-02-2022)

Last Sunday I was glad I carried my cap along because the sun was fierce enough to need protection from. Cap on head and feeling shaded I browsed at Abids and found two wonderful titles that I was glad for.

Only the previous Sunday I had found a copy of ‘The Closed Circle- An Interpretation of the Arabs’ by David Pryce-Jones that was another addition to the titles on the Middle East and Arabs that I had found. I was very surprised when I found another title on Arabs- ‘A History of the Arab Peoples’ by Albert Hourani. Initially I was put off by the dirt and grime on the cover but after seeing that it was a ‘faber and faber’ title I grabbed it. After I got home I cleaned the cover and tweeted about it. I was surprised to discover that it was a sought after title. I was pleased to have found it and more pleased that I got it for only a hundred rupees. It is another thick volume similar to the other titles on Arabs that I have with me at home. I plan to read all these titles one after the other in order of publication- the older ones first.

The last find was a title by a writer I greatly admire- Fakir Mohan Senapati. Ever since I read his ‘Six Acres and a Third’ I have been on the lookout for his other titles. Under a pile of books I spotted just the word ‘Fakir’ and I knew it would be Fakir Mohan Senapati. When I pulled out the book I was pleased to find it was indeed a title by him. It was a beautiful copy of ‘Lachhamaa’ that I got for only fifty rupees. I was really glad to find it because I have never heard of this title that was quite slim. This is the book I am going to read next.  However the name was spelt as ‘Phakir’  and not Fakir.