The Sunday Haul (on 08-09-2024)

 Last week too the wet weather continued though it did not rain on Sunday until after I had bought just one book there. It was a wet and miserable week we in Telangana had with daily rain, and not just rain but heavy downpour all the time. I thought it wouldn’t rain on Sunday last when I stepped out of the house and looked at the clouds in the sky. I took a chance and left for Abids after breakfast. 

Since a couple of months I have begun a new routine as I am traveling by city bus after my accident in November last. So I began first with the sellers at Chikkadpally. With one of the sellers I found a copy of ‘The Sound of Mountain Water’ by Wallace Stegner, a book of essays on the West in the US. I also have his ‘Where the BlueBird Sings to the  Lemonade Springs’  and also ‘Second Growth’  that I had found long back but haven’t yet read. 

 

After that I got to Abids in a longish way, first going to Afzal Gunj and then catching an 8A and getting down near the GPO. First, I had chai and chota samosa in Grand Hotel and then began my hunt. I found a copy of a Telugu book- ‘Viewlu, Reviewlu’ by Sri Sri or Srirangam Srinivas Shastry, the popular leftist writer known for his fiery lyrics. This was a book of his essays and his reviews of Telugu novels and other books. I got it for fifty rupees and felt glad at finding this wonderful book. I had found one of his most famous books, a collection of verse, ‘Mahaprasthanam’ long back. 

 

Then moments later it began to drizzle and it became a steady downpour. I watched as the booksellers hastily covered the books on the pavement with plastic sheets. I knew they would all wind up their business if it continued to rain and so lost heart in going around further. I went to Nampally and got into 20P that would take me home. 

The Sunday Haul That Wasn’t

 Since Friday last week it rained heavily and continuously in Telangana as well as Hyderabad which put life out of gear for everyone. Since no bookseller would want to put out his books on the pavements in such weather at Abids I too dropped the idea of going there on Sunday. It was on Sunday that it rained the heaviest. Somehow I missed going to Abids, looking for books, having chai in the Irani and returning home heart filled with that joy that comes with buying good books.

 However, on last Thursday I had dropped in at ‘Unique’ bookstore in Khairatabad and found a gem there on the shelves. I spotted a copy of ‘Flannery O’ Connor: The Complete Stories’ with an attractive cover that featured a peacock. Though it was priced at three hundred rupees I did not want to miss buying it and regret later since it had thirty one stories including her famous ‘All that Rises Must Converge’ and ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’ that I had already read. 

I had found a copy of another collection by Flannery O’ Connor titled ‘All that Rises Must Converge’ sometime recently that had … stories that are also included in ‘Flannery O’ Connor: The Complete Stories’. The list of the thirty-one stories in it is as follows: The Geranium, The Barber, Wildcat, The Crop, The Turkey, The Train, The Peeler, The Heart of the Park, A Stroke of Good Fortune, Enoch and the Gorilla, A Good Man is Hard to Find, A Late Encounter with the Enemy, The Life You Save May Be Your Own, The River, A Circle in the Fire, The Displaced Person, A Temple of the Holy Ghost, The Artificial Nigger, Good Country People, You Can’t Be Any Poorer Than Dead, Greenleaf, A View of the Woods, The Enduring Chill, The Comforts of Home, Every That Rises Must Converge, The Partridge Festival, The Lame Shall Enter First, Why Do the Heathen Rage?, Revelation, Parker’s Back, and Judgement Day.

 

There’s an Introduction by Robert Giroux that throws light on Flannery O' Connor the writer and the person.