The Book Fair Haul

Only two weeks earlier I had returned from Bengaluru with more than a dozen books and I was not in a mood to buy any more books until the end of the year. Since I had read about the dates of the Hyderabad Book Fair I had been keeping a sort of countdown to the day it would open on the 19^th of December. I told myself I would buy just five or six books during the Book Fair and not more than that but things did not happen that way. I dropped in at the Book Fair almost every day and ended up buying more books than I thought I would buy. 

The 38^th Hyderabad Book Fair began on the 19^th of December and I was there on the first day even before it had been properly inaugurated. On my very first visit on the first day of the book fair I ended up buying eight books.  In one second-hand book stall I found two titles. I found ‘Indian Realities: Bits & Pieces’ by Sham Lal who was editor of Times of India in the past. I had found a hardbound copy of ‘A Hundred Encounters’ long back. ‘Indian Realities’ is a large tome and has hundreds of pieces on persons, books, and also reviews. I got this for two hundred rupees. 

Chinua Achebe happens to be one of my favourite authors and I do not miss buying anthing by him. So when I spotted a copy of ‘There was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra’ by Chinua Achebe I grabbed it. This too I got for two hundred rupees. 

In another stall I found a copy of ‘On Writing’ by Stephen King that I already had bought more than a dozen copies of in the past. I simply cannot resist buying this wonderful title whenever I see a copy.

The next find was a copy of ‘The Truth (Almost) About Bharat’ by Kaveri Nambisan who also happens to be another favourite of mine. This copy was a new edition with a beautiful cover and I read inside that the cover was designed by Vijay Nambisan, poet, author, and also her husband. 

I found a copy of ‘The Untold Charminar: Writings on Hyderabad’ by Syeda Imam that I grabbed the instant I saw it. Hyderabad is where I live and I want to read everything about Hyderabad, especially the past. I am still looking for references about the Sunday Abids second-hand book market but haven’t found any so far. 

I already have a copy of ‘The Emperor’ by Ryszard Kapuscinski but I couldn’t stop myself from buying the copy I saw at the book fair. Kapuscinski is a wonderful journalist and I have almost all of his books. I do not remember how much I paid for this book and also for other books. 

Somehow I seem to be finding copies of titles by favourite authors that I already have. I have four copies of ‘The Snow Leopard’ by Peter Matthiessen at home. But when I saw the cover on the copy I saw at another second-hand book stall I knew I had to buy it whatever the cost. It was one of twelve influential American literary classics Penguin published on the 70^th anniversary of Penguin Classics, calling them Penguin Orange Collection. The pages were deckle edge and I paid four hundred rupees for this copy. 

Along with ‘The Snow Leopard’ was a copy of ‘Essays: Stranger Shores-essays 1986-1999’ by J.M. Coetzee that also I bought for four hundred rupees. I have a collection of his earlier essays titled ‘Inner Workings’ that, incidentally, I found at the 2014 Hyderabad Book Fair. 

Though I felt guilty that I had bought eight titles on the first day of the 38^th Hyderabad Book Fair I went again on the second day. Luckily, I could find only two titles worth buying. The first of these was a copy of ‘The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers’ by Paul Kennedy that is another massive tome running into hundreds of pages. It is in keeping with my new found interest in geopolitics. 

I had seen copies of ‘The Last Post’ by Narendar Pani at Abids and also in second-hand bookstores but somehow did not feel like buying it. However, at the book fair I saw another copy and took a close look at what it was. When I read that it was a novel about a small town newspaper and its editor I decided to buy it right away. 

I skipped going to the book fair on Sunday as I knew there would be huge crowds. I went on the fourth day and picked up a copy of ‘Testimony to the Invisible: Essays on Swedenborg’ ed by James F. Lawrence. I had no idea who Swedenborg was but when I read the names of Borges, Czeslaw Milosz and others on the cover I decided to buy it. 

Another title I see at Abids quite frequently was ‘Close to the Bone’ by Lisa Ray, a memoir about her cancer. I wanted to read it but the price of the hardcover was too high for me so I skipped buying the copies at Abids. The copy of ‘Close to the Bone’ I found at the book fair was a paperback and as it was for a hundred rupees I bought it. 

I went again the next day and found four wonderful titles. In one stall I found a copy of ‘Glittering City’ by Cyprian Ekwensi whose ‘People of the City’ I had found long back in 2017. The sticker on the cover mentioned ‘Rs.100’ but the seller, an Abids bookseller gave it to me for seventy rupees. 

In another stall I found a copy of ‘Inside the Whale and Other Essays’ by George Orwell. It had two of his famous essays: ‘Shooting an Elephant’ and also ‘Politics and the English Language’ among the nine essays in it. Also, it had a wonderful cover which was another reason I gave myself to buy it for two hundred rupees. 

When I saw the copy of ‘Trespassers on the Roof of the World: The Race for Lhasa’ by Peter Hopkirk I dived and grabbed it before anyone could take it though no one seemed to be even looking at it. Sometime back I had found ‘The Great Game’ a thick tome I am yet to read that did not prevent me from buying ‘Trespassers on the Roof of the World’. I loved the cover on it. 

The best find of the day was a beautiful copy of ‘Africa: A Biography of the Continent’ by John Reader, a Penguin title. I love reading about Africa and this title seemed to be all about Africa so I bought it without a second thought. Again, this copy too had a beautiful cover.

 

On my fifth visit on the sixth day of the Hyderabad Book Fair I looked for a copy of  a Franz Fanon title that I missed buying but I was informed it was sold. I was terribly disappointed with myself for not having picked it up the first time I saw it. Then as if to make up for the disappointment I found another wonderful title on a topic I’ve been reading up on quite seriously. I spotted a nice copy of ‘Sowing the Wind: The Mismanagement of the Middle East 1900-1960’ by John Keay, another hefty volume that seemed to run into hundreds of pages. I was very pleased to find it and more so when I got it for just two hundred rupees. 

The next find was a shrink-wrapped copy of ‘Mirrors’ by Eduardo Galeano, an author I had not expected to find but was keen to read. But this wasn’t a book of his journalism or his novels. I got it for two hundred and fifty rupees. On five visits I had picked up a dozen and half books at the Hyderabad Book Fair spending a couple of thousands of rupees, but all worth it I feel.

Next visit would be on Saturday and I hope that would be my last visit to the Book Fair though it would go on until the 29^th of December. Who knows I might drop in again on the last day?

The Sunday Haul (on 14-12-2025)

 

The previous Sunday was at Bengaluru so missed my weekly trip to the Sunday second-hand book market at Abids here. So it was with a bit of excitement that I started for Abids last Sunday as I would meet my bibliophile friends over chai and also meet a new friend I met online who wanted to check out the books at Abids. 

At Chikkadpally I saw two titles that I already had but wanted to buy anyway. However, they were massive tomes and would cost me a bomb so I decided to check them out next Sunday.

A few minutes later I reached Abids and met the person who was waiting for me. We both set out to browse further since he had already bought about half a dozen books by then. Having bought more than a dozen titles at Bengaluru only a few days earlier I was in no mood to buy any more unless something really exceptional turned up. 

As usual, something really exceptionally turned up shortly afterwards. I spotted a copy of ‘No Country for Old Men’ by Cormac McCarthy that had a fantastic cover. I already have a copy of this title that I found in 2012 but this copy was something I had to buy just for the irresistible cover. I turned to the back cover and read that the cover was designed by David Pearson. The title filled the cover in a type of lettering I hadn’t seen before. Though a bit of the cover on the front was torn and some of the pages inside seemed to have a touch of the damage by moisture this Picador edition was otherwise in beautiful condition. I got it for a hundred rupees. 

Then my friend said he wanted to check out the Best Books store which was where we headed for next. I had asked him if he had read anything by Elmore Leonard as I wanted to give him a book as a gift. But there were no Elmore Leonard titles at the store so I settled for a J.M. Coetzee title to give to him. I was surprise when he pulled out a copy of ‘Empires of the Indus: The Story of a River’ by Alice Albinia from the shelves to give to me in turn. I was very pleased to get it and thanked him before he left. 

The Bengaluru Haul (05-08/12/2025)

 

I was in Bengaluru last week and so missed going to Abids but did not miss buying books. I bought more than a dozen books in the bookstores on Church Street during my four day stay there. I had gone to attend the Bengaluru Lit Fest on 6-7 of this month. I reached on Friday and the first thing I did was drop my bags at a hotel, get ready and go to Blossoms first thing. The first book I found was a copy of ‘Penguin special: The Life and Times of Allen Lane’ by Jeremy Lewis that I got for two hundred rupees. By then it was time for lunch that I had at Paakashaala and on the way back dropped in at Select in another lane. Here I did not find anything but asked if they had a copy of a book they had published on one their anniversaries. The owner was kind enough to give it to me for free saying they did not charge for it. I was grateful and just to make things even bought a copy of ‘The Elements of Style’ by Strunk & White. I have almost half a dozen copies of this title. 

Later I dropped in at Book Hive. Here I found a copy of ‘Dusk and Other Stories’ by James Salter, and a few minutes later found a nice copy of ‘Elephant & Other Stories’ by Raymond Carver, another collection of short stories. I felt overjoyed finding these two short story collections by two of my favorite authors. 

After coffee at India Coffee House I moved on to Book Worm. In the Antique and Rare Books store within store I found two titles I had read about long back in the ‘Endpaper’ column of Pradeep Sebastian, India’s foremost bibliophile. I found a beautiful copy of ‘Among the Gently Mad’ by Nicholas Basbanes and also a nice almost new copy of ‘Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World’ by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone. They did not come cheap though. I had to pay a lot to get hold of these two titles but I think for a bibliophile like me these two books are worth it. 

Back at the Blossoms again an hour later I was browsing the Indian writing titles on the shelves when I found two title among the titles there. I was surprised how the copies of non-fiction titles found a place in the fiction shelves. One title was a copy of ‘Peace and Its Discontents’ by Edward Said and the other was a nice copy of ‘Covering Islam’ also by Edward Said. I hadn’t expected to find these two titles and so was quite pleased I found them without any effort. 

On Monday, the last day of my stay at Bengaluru I dropped in at Blossoms again, at their second store. Here I found a copy of ‘Inside the Treasure House’ A Time in Tibet’ by Catriona Bass. Though it had ‘Abacus Travel’ on the top of the cover I noticed at the back that it was published by Rupa. Anyway, since I had never heard of this book and since it looked like something I might like I took it. 

I had a long list of authors whose books I was searching for and one of those was Ross Thomas. One of the salesgirls searched for the authors name on the computer and said there was a copy of ‘Briarpatch’ a title missing in my Ross Thomas collection. I was quite pleased to find it and added it to my growing haul. 

Another title I found there was a nice copy of ‘Distant Neighbours’ by Kuldip Nayar, a book about India and Pakistan issues. I had always wanted to read Kuldip Nayar’s books since he is a well-regarded journalist. I had earlier found copies of his ‘Between the Lines’ and also ‘Scoop’ at Abids. 

Then I went to Bookworm again and after a long search for interesting titles I found a copy of ‘A Short History of the Middle East’ by Gordon Kerr, a title to add to my growing collection of books on the Middle East. This was a slim book and looked like I could finish it in a couple of hours’ reading. 

At the Bangalore Lit Fest on the first day I picked up a copy of ‘This Divided Island’ by Samanth Subramanian. I had earlier read his other book ‘Following Fish’ and had liked the way he wrote. Since this title was about the Sri Lankan war I wanted to read it as I had earlier read Anita Pratap’s book on the war in Sri Lanka. 

On one of the visits to Blossoms on Saturday evening I picked up a copy of ‘Money for Old Rope’ Disorderly Compositions’ by Charles Glass that had a blurb by Christopher Hitchens on the cover. The copy appeared almost brand new and also the author, a journalist, seemed to have covered the Middle East I was immediately drawn to it and bought it. 

So, that was a big haul of more than a dozen books at Bengaluru. In another ten days the Hyderabad Book Fair will open and I do not know how many books I will find there. 2025 is going to be a year of record haul of books. 

The Sunday Haul (on 30-11-2025)

 

Every time I firmly resolve not to buy more than one title at the Sunday Abids second-hand book market I end up finding more than half a dozen titles that I absolutely cannot resist buying. It happened last Sunday when I found six good titles that I decided to bring home and add to the hundreds of books lying around. Also, among my four friends who are also avid book lovers I was the one who bought the most books last Sunday.

The first title I found was a copy of ‘Literary Taste’ by Arnold Bennett that was a slim, small book that seemed to be all about how to form literary taste. I bought it since I do not seem to have any kind of literary taste as I pick up whatever appears good to me. 

Then I almost hopped around with joy when I spotted a copy of ‘The Friends of Eddie Coyle’ by George V. Higgins. Though I already have two copies of the same title with the same cover I bought this copy, my third since I could not bear to leave it behind. I got it for just fifty rupees. 

Then with the same seller I found a copy of ‘Mad Dogs and Diplomats’ by P.L. Bhandari since it looked interesting. The author is a retired diplomat and the book seemed to be about some interesting experiences of his various diplomatic postings. I have to look for another title of his that I think I had found a long time back but now cannot remember the title. 

Then another stroke of luck when I found a copy of ‘My Son’s Father’ by Dom Moraes, his memoir of his father. It was an older edition by Bell Books and this copy too I couldn’t resist buying though I already have a Penguin edition of the same title. 

On the way back I spotted a beautiful copy of ‘Men in White’ by Mukul Kesavan, one of the writers whose columns I find to be extremely well informed and perceptive. As the title says it is a book of cricket, a game that I am not at all interested in. But I know Mukul Kesavan writes well so I bought it to read his prose. 

The last find was a beautiful hardcover copy of ‘Mantras of Change: Reporting India in a Time of Flux’ by Daniel Lak, the BBC correspondent. It is a book of the events he covered when he was in India. An interesting thing happened when I was contemplating buying it. One of my friends asked me how much I thought I would pay for it. I said a hundred rupees. He took the book from hand and said he would get it for fifty rupees and went to the seller. After a while he returned and said the seller wouldn’t give it for less than hundred rupees and so I was right in my estimate of the book’s price. I modestly claim this correct guess about the price came with experience of more than thirty five years buying books at Abids.