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.