The Sunday Haul (on 18-09-2022)

 After the previous Sunday’s disappointment at not having been to the second hand book market at Abids due to continuous rain I was counting the days to the next Sunday, i.e., last Sunday. The weather was clear and sunny when I started for Abids after breakfast, and managed to find some really good titles in the hour and half that I was at Abids.

Since a long time I’ve been looking for books by Krishna Sobti especially her ‘Zindaginama’ that I found with a seller on WA last December. Last Sunday I found a hardcover copy of ‘Listen Girl’ by Krishna Sobti, the English translation of her ‘Ai Ladki’ that I had read about many time in several places. Translated by Shivanath and published by Katha ‘Listen Girl’s is a little over a hundred pages, just right to finish in a single sitting that I plan to read only after I finish reading ‘Zindaginama’ that is somewhere on one of the shelves at home.  

Then with the same seller I found a book that was by title Penguin that I automatically buy. It was a copy of ‘Ennal’s Point’ by Alun Richards, a writer I had never heard of before. However it seemed interesting as it was described as a ‘vivid and moving story about lifeboats and the men who sail in them’ on the back cover.

In the same pile of books I saw another title by an author I had again never heard of. It had an attractive cover and the title was ‘Saturday Night at the Greyhound’ by John Hampson. The reason why I picked it was that on the cover it also said ‘Hogarth Fiction’ published by Hogarth Press. On the back cover was a blurb by Graham Greene- ‘A Book I greatly admire’ which convinced me that it could indeed be a good read. I got these three books for only hundred rupees. 

Just before I decided to have a cup of tea in the local Irani I saw a nice copy of ‘Right of Passage: Travels from Brooklyn  to Bali’ by Rahul Jacob. It was a collection of travel essays by Rahul Jacob, and since I love travel titles I decided to buy it. I had seen the book earlier too but somehow I did not buy it then.

Even though I do not read sci-fi I couldn’t resist picking up the copy of ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ by Philip K. Dick that I saw. I messaged a friend who loves sci-fi if he wanted it but he messaged back saying he had a copy of it. So I bought it for eighty rupees.