The Sunday Haul (on 18-05-2025)

Last Sunday I made the biggest ever hauls of my life when I picked up more than twenty books in a matter of a couple of hours. The previous Sunday with a seller at Chikkadpally I spotted about two dozen titles of J.M. Coetzee that I almost bought right away. Somehow, I decided not to be impulsive and wait a week before deciding to buy them.

Even before I could get to that seller who had the J.M. Coetzee I found a copy of ‘A Career in Book Publishing’ by Samuel Israel that was an NBT title. A long time I had found a copy of ‘Editors on Editing’ that had an article by Samuel Israel that I found to be very useful and informative. I picked up this copy of ‘A Career in Book Publishing’ for fifty rupees. This was the first title in the big haul.

The next find was another wonderful title, a thick volume. I found a beautiful copy of ‘‘The Granta Book of the American Short Story’ ed Richard Ford that I grabbed right away. It had more than forty short stories by writers like Paul Bowles, John Cheever, Robert Coover, Eudora Welty and other well-known short story writers. However, there were names of writers I hadn’t heard before but what made me very happy was that there were stories by writers I like especially James Salter, James Baldwin, and Lorrie Moore. I got this book for a hundred and fifty rupees. 

Next stop was the seller who had the Coetzee titles and I approached with a bit of trepidation. I had already decided to buy all those titles and I was anxious if they were all there. Luckily I noticed that they were all there at the same place I had seen them. These are the J.M.Coetzee titles I picked up: 

‘Disgrace’ 

‘Youth’

‘Elizabeth Costello’

‘Foe’

‘Slow Man’

‘Boyhood’

‘Diary of a Bad Year’

‘In the Heart of the Country’

‘Dusklands’

‘Waiting for the Barbarians

‘Age of Iron’

Summertime’

‘The Master of Petersburg’

‘Life & Times of Michael K’

‘The Schooldays of Jesus’

‘The Childhood of Jesus’

‘Here and Now: Letters 2008-2011’ Paul Auster and J.M.Coetzee. 

I think all these titles belonged to one person who must have sold off his collection of J.M. Coetzee titles. Some of these copies have a curious dedication on the inside title pages. 

Curiously, I found another title edited by Richard Ford who also edited the Granta Book of American Short Story. Another coincidence was that it was also by Granta!

I almost decided against buying ‘The Womanizer’ ed Richard Ford but when I saw the name of William T. Vollman in the contents page I bought it. I had been looking for something by Vollman since a long time and at last I found something. 

The last book I found at Abids was a nice copy of 'Love & Summer' by William Trevor. Though I had earlier found two copies of this title I couldn't resist buying this as I was getting for only fifty rupees.