Last Sunday it was another haul of five wonderful titles at the Abids second hand book bazaar that I’ve been going to since more than three decades. The first title I found was one that I missed buying a long time ago when I first saw it. It was a copy of ‘Consider the Lobster and Other Essays’ by David Foster Wallace that I saw on the top of a pile of books with a seller who sells his titles cheap. So I got this title for just fifty rupees.
‘Consider the Lobster’ has the following ten essays including the title essay: Big Red Sun; Certainly the End of Something or Other, One Would Have to Think; Some Remarks on Kafka’s Funniness from Which Probably Not Enough Has Been Removed; Authority and American Usage; The View from Mrs.Thompson’s; How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart; Up, Simba; Consider the Lobster; Joseph Frank’s Dostoevsky; and Host.
Just below the first find was a copy of ‘Bend Sinister’ by Vladimir Nabokov that had a beautiful cover and I got this title too for just fifty rupees. It was a good start to the book hunt at Abids.
In another pile with the same seller I saw a copy of ‘Forget Kathmandu’ by Manjushree Thapa, a journalist whose columns I have read in the past, I guess, in India Today. I got this title too for only fifty rupees. I couldn’t believe that I got three wonderful titles for less than two hundred rupees.
The previous Sunday I had seen a nice hardcover copy of ‘The Love of a Good Woman’ by Alice Munro that I did not buy though I desperately wanted it. The seller asked for a too high price and knowing him and his attitude I did not want to bargain for it so I walked away hoping I would be able to find it the next Sunday. Luckily for me last Sunday I was glad to see it was still unsold and got it for just two hundred rupees.
‘The Love of a Good Woman’ has these eight stories: The Love of a Good Woman; Jakarta; Cortes Island; Save the Reaper; The Children Stay; Rich as Stink; Before the Change; and My Mother’s Dream. I do not remember reading these stories in other collections of Alice Munro that I have.
In another random heap of books selling for only fifty rupees that another seller near the Bata showroom had I spotted a copy of ‘The Color of Blood’ by Brian Moore. It was written on the cover that it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It was published by Paladin and naturally it roused my curiosity. After reading the blurbs from The Guardian, Sunday Telegraph, and The Observer I did not need much convincing to buy this thriller.
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