The Sunday Haul (on 22.10.2023) 

The regular shops at Abids were just beginning to open when I reached there last Sunday. The festival bustle would begin in a few hours so I got around all the sellers looking for something good to pick up. Though I looked carefully all I could manage to find was a good copy of a book that I already have.

 

Australia is one country that fascinates me and I try to read as many travel titles on Australia as I can find. I have a few such titles on Australia that I have found a long time back. One of them is of course Bill Bryson’s ‘Down Under’ and also ‘West of Centre’ by Ray Ericksen that I loved. Not long ago I had found a copy of ‘The Ribbon and the Ragged Square: An Australian Journey’ by Linda Christmas that I had spotted at a store in Bengaluru sometime in May this year. Another title on Australia that I found sometime in August 2019 was a copy of ‘In the Land of Oz’ by Howard Jacobson that I read right away after finding it and then again recently. 

 

It was a copy of this same title- ‘In the Land of Oz’ by Howard Jacobson that I found last Sunday at Abids. It was a far better copy than the one I had so I couldn’t resist buying it and got it for just eighty rupees.

The Sunday Haul (on 15.10.2023)

 The festival season is on in Hyderabad and many shops in Abids were open last Sunday so some of the sellers of second-hand books had to move their books to other spots. This would be the situation until Diwali in November. However, it did not matter much to me at all because I knew where the sellers were. 

 

Sometime after I found ‘On Writing’ by Stephen King after reading which I felt confident enough to think of putting down on paper the idea for a novel I had in mind I found a copy of ‘The Writing of One Novel’ by Irving Wallace at Abids a long time back. It gave me an idea of how writers develop their novels after getting the idea for it, and what happens while the novel is written, and the numerous obstacles the writer has to face while writing. ‘The Writing of One Novel’ was one title I read and reread numerous times. I also found several copies of it all these years that I gave away to anyone who expressed the slightest interest in writing a novel. It is a different matter that not one who I gave a copy of ‘The Writing of One Novel’ has managed to bring out a novel so far.

 

Anyway, I found yet another copy of ‘The Writing of One Novel’ by Irving Wallace at Abids last Sunday and I was unable to move on without buying it. I got it for fifty rupees, a nice copy that I plan to retain and give away a different copy that is not in such a good condition that I had found some time back. 

 

I do not know where I read about ‘Harry’s Game’ that was described as a great read but I forgot who the author was however I remembered the title. Last Sunday at Abids I spotted a copy of ‘Harry’s Game’ by Gerald Seymour at a seller that I almost pounced on and grabbed it. I got it for just fifty rupees. 

The Sunday Haul (on 08.10.2023)

It is unusually warm for this time of the year in Hyderabad when it would have begun to get a bit cold early in the morning. I read somewhere that it would begin to get cold sometime in mid-November which is almost a month away so until then we in Hyderabad have to put up with these warm days.  

As usual I was in Abids last Sunday eager to pick up interesting titles, and soon after reaching I spotted a copy of ‘Inspector Matadeen on the Moon’ by Harishankar Parsai. I had read a long back about Harishankar Parsai’s satirical pieces but hadn’t expected to find an entire book of them. I got this title for sixty rupees.

 

The next find was a travel title- ‘Inka-Kola: A Traveller’s Tale of Peru’ by Matthew Parris that I found in a pile of Rs.100 books. I picked it up after reading a blurb by Dervla Murphy on the back cover. Of course, the attractive cover also played a role in my decision to buy it. 

 

Though Saddam Hussein of Iraq has been long dead I haven’t lost the desire to know what the newspapers haven’t written about this much reviled President. So when I saw a copy of 

‘Saddam’s War’ by John Bulloch & Harvey Morris published by faber and faber I grabbed it. I got it for a hundred rupees at a seller in Chikkadpally 

This year it is going to be a too big haul of books that I've picked up at Abids and also got a lot of books online. I have to start counting from now on!

The Sunday Haul ( on 01-10-2023)

 Though the temperatures do not show it but for all appearances winter is just around the corner in Hyderabad. It was bright and sunny in the morning at Abids when I reached for my weekly dose of Sunday browsing for books on the pavements. Hari came with Anjali to look for some good titles and I picked out a nice copy of ‘The Heart is a Lonely Hunter’ by Carson McCullers for Anjali. 

 

The first title I found was a copy of ‘A Life of One’s Own’ by Joanna Field that somehow felt could be a good title so I picked up and read that it had been out of print for a long time. It was some kind of a memoir/self-help/psychology title that I felt I had to read. I got this title for fifty rupees only. 

 

The next title I found was a copy of ‘Out’ by Pierre Ray, a voluminous crime fiction book that I somehow felt could be another good read. I got this for thirty rupees. 

 

On the way back home I stopped at Chikkadpally and spotted a copy with a blue cover that was ‘Propaganda and the Public Mind: Conversations with Noam Chomsky: Interviews by David Barsamian. This was the second Noam Chomsky title I found in the recent weeks. After I read that John Pilger was influenced by Noam Chomsky I had decided to read his books. 

 

A while ago the Literature Nobel was announced and it was awarded to Jon Fosse. I haven’t read any of his books though I have read about his books on Twitter. I hope I find a title by Jon Fosse soon.