The Sunday Haul (on 24-12-2023)

 

 

A bit late writing about last Sunday’s haul because I wanted to post it on the last day of the year 2023. I love humor and when I found a beautiful collection of humor writing I did not think twice before buying it. I saw a copy of ‘Fierce Pajamas: An Anthology of Humor Writing from The New Yorker’ edited by David Remnick and Henry Finder with a seller outside the GPO at Abids and bought it for just a hundred and fifty rupees only. It has more than a hundred and fifty pieces by writers like Woody Allen, James Thurber, E.B. White, Garrison Keillor, Steve Martin, Peter De Vries, and there’s even one by Susan Sontag!

 

I have copies of ‘The Blue Nile’ and ‘The White Nile’ both written by Alan Moorehead but I am yet to find the time to read them. When I saw a copy of ‘No Room in the Ark’ by Alan Moorehead, a slim volume I was curious to know what it was. I got it for only thirty rupees. 

The Sunday Haul (on 17-12-2023)

After the accident though there is a minor change in my manner of reaching Abids on Sunday mornings there is no change in what I am finding at Abids. I continue to find good books at Abids every Sunday, and last Sunday too I found four wonderful titles. 

The first title I spotted was a copy of ‘The Writer and the World’ a collection of essays by the venerable V.S. Naipaul. I do not remember if I have this title or not but I couldn’t let go of such a fine copy and therefore I bought it. I got it for two hundred rupees which is a bit high. But what the heck, I’d pay anything for a good title.

Another title that I remember having bought earlier was ‘The Granta Book of India’ the copy of which stared back at me from the pavement and before I could try to remember clearly I picked it up. This title I got for hundred rupees.

Another find was a beautiful hardcover title ’Signs and Images’ by Roland Barthes and I grabbed it at lightning speed though there was no one around who would have snatched it. This is my second Roland Barthes title having found the first title ages ago and which I am yet to read. This title I got for just eighty rupees.

The last title I found was one I clearly remember having several copies of and which I’d buy any number of copies that I came across. It was almost by accident that I spotted the distinctive red cover of ‘Ex-Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader’ by Anne Fadiman, and I felt a strange thrill at having found yet another copy of this wonderful book that every bibliophile ought to have on their bookshelf. I couldn’t believe it when the seller asked just thirty rupees for this slim book. 

The Sunday Haul (on 03.12.2023)

 Going to Abids has become a bit complicated for me since the past three weeks. I had a road accident last month a day before Diwali and fractured my collarbone after falling down on the road from my two-wheeler that was hit by a rashly driven autorickshaw. I have been wearing a clavicle brace and have my right arm in a sling which means I cannot ride a two-wheeler. So I am going by cab to Abids which isn’t the same as going on my two-wheeler. 

Anyway, I got there as usual a little before noon and managed to find three titles. The first title I found was a copy of ‘With Chatwin’ by Susannah Clapp that was almost brand new and had Chatwin’s picture on the cover. It is a memoir/biography, and I plan to read it along with another biography of Chatwin by Nicholas Shakespeare that I had found a long time ago but haven’t yet managed to read it.

 

The next find was a nice copy of ‘Delhi Metropolitan: The Making of an Unlikely City’ by Ranjana Sengupta that I got for eighty rupees. Coincidentally I had claimed ‘City of Gold: The Biography of Bombay’ by Gillian Tindall on an online sale and that is yet to be delivered. Someday I have to read both these titles. I’ve already read Geoffrey Moorehouse’s book on Calcutta sometime last year. 

 

Though I felt that I have already read the copy of ‘Finding the Centre’ by V.S. Naipaul that I had found some time ago I couldn’t resist buying another copy though with a different cover and also an older edition that I saw at Abids last Sunday. One reason for buying it was that it was in a heap of Rs.50 books.