The Sunday Haul (on 24.09.2023)

The Sunday before I was travelling and so wasn’t in Hyderabad therefore no Sunday Haul. But I was back from Ooty on Saturday evening and was raring to go to Abids to check out the books. Luckily for me it wasn’t raining and I was able to browse to my heart’s content during the two hours I was there. 

The first book I found was a copy of ‘Maai’ by Gitanjali Sree, a Hindi title that I had seen a couple of Sundays before but had hesitated to buy for some reason. But last Sunday I picked it up for just forty rupees. I don’t know when I will find the time to read it but I will read it because it is one of the few Hindi books I would be reading.

 

The next find was a copy of ‘Pubis Angelical’ by Manuel Puig. I read on the cover that Puig was a well-known Argentine writer and had also written a bestseller earlier. I did not hesitate to buy it and got it for a hundred rupees.

 

A couple of years ago a friend had gifted me a new copy of ‘Living to Tell the Tale’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez that I am yet to read. Last Sunday at Abids with one of the sellers I saw another copy that I did not have the heart to leave behind so bought it for hundred rupees. 

The Sunday Haul (on 10-09-2023)

Almost every Sunday I am convinced that when it comes to finding good titles I am very lucky. It was proved again last Sunday when I found a wonderful title by an author I was desperate to find. But it happened almost at the end of my browsing at Abids. 

 

Sometime back I had found a book of articles and essays by TCA Srinivasa Raghavan in which there was a lengthy piece on second hand bookstores. Last Sunday at Abids I happened to find a novel by TCA which is about publishing which is a field I like to read about so I  picked up a copy of ‘Goodbye to All That’ by TCA Srinivasa Raghavan that I saw with a seller. 

 

There are a few titles I have many copies of because I cannot resist leaving behind those titles whenever I come across them. ‘Narrow Road to the Deep North’ by Richard Flanagan is one title that I have picked up at least three copies so far and on Sunday at Abids I picked up my fourth copy not because I was getting it cheap but because I love it and want my friends also to read it. I got it for just fifty rupees. 

 

I had come across nothing but high praise for titles by Olga Tokarczuk on Twitter and elsewhere. I felt that it would be next to impossible to find copies of her books and had not even expected to find them in, of all places, Abids where one gets only second-hand copies. But last Sunday I was shocked to find a nice copy of ‘Flights’ by Olga Tokarczuk with a seller near the GPO. I tried to appear as calm as possible and not show any excitement while picking up the copy to take a good look at it. I was surprised to find that it was an edition for sale in India and the subcontinent only for Rs.499. I got it for Rs.120. 

 

Then in another heap of books selling for Rs.20/ only I saw a copy of a children’s title with a very attractive cover ‘Nagoba and Other Stories’ by Aruna Bhargava that I bought just for the cover alone. 

The Sunday Haul (on 03-09-2023)

I am a big fan of Len Deighton’s writing and have all his titles that I found over the years. Bernard Samson is one of my favorite characters and I have read and reread all titles that feature Bernard Samson. Last Sunday at Abids I spotted a beautiful hardcover copy of ‘Only When I Laugh’ by Len Deighton that I immediately picked up intrigued by the differently spelled ‘Laugh’ in the title. I have a copy of ‘Only When I Larf’ and when I checked this copy I realized that it was an American edition published by The Mysterious Press, New York. 

On the way back home from Abids I stopped at Chikkadpally as usual and saw a nice copy of ‘Red Harvest’ by Dashiell Hammett. I thought I did not have this title and so picked it up. I got it for only hundred rupees. 

The Sunday Haul (on 27.08.2023)

Before I write about the haul last Sunday at Abids I have to write about the haul the previous Sunday about which I could not post here due to a heavy workload.

The other Sunday (on 20^th August) I had found a wonderful title at Chikkadpally on the way home from Abids where I could not find anything interesting. I spotted a copy of ‘A Mouthful of Air’ by Anthony Burgess that I got for less than a hundred rupees. 

 

 

Last Sunday at Abids I netted another wonderful haul of two great titles. I was thrilled beyond measure to find these two books. The first find was a title I had seen the other Sunday but had not picked up assuming no one would buy such a book and indeed no one bought it since I saw it at the same spot last Sunday and picked it up. It was a nice copy of ‘The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia’ by Peter Hopkirk. I got it for a hundred and fifty rupees.

 

 

Only the other day I had seen a tweet about ‘The Darker the Night the Brighter the Stars’ by Paul Broks that seemed to have been published very recently so I thought I would not be able to get it so soon at Abids, at least the original copy. However, last Sunday I got a pleasant surprise when I found an original copy of it and got it for hundred rupees only. 

This was the haul on Sunday before I fly off to Ooty on Monday.