The Sunday Haul (on 12-04-2026)

 
        The weather forecast had said that the next ten days from the 12th to 22nd of this month it would be very hot and that heatwaves are likely. It was indeed hot on Sunday morning when I stepped out of the house to go on my weekly visit to Abids to check out the books in the second-hand books market there. For a brief moment I wondered if it would be a good idea to stay home instead of getting roasted in the sun for a couple of hours. I put the idea of staying at home out of my mind and went ahead. 

At the first stop in RTC X Roads I found a copy of 'A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again' by David Foster Wallace that I had found a long time back and had also read it. I picked it up to send to a friend in Mumbai who is a David Foster Wallace fan. I got it for eighty rupees. Next find was also with the same seller. I spotted a copy of 'The Cambridge Introduction to Creative Writing' by David Morley that I also decided to buy. I can never get enough of books on writing so in it went into the haul. This was for a hundred rupees. When I read a few paragraphs at random I felt that it was more interesting than other academic books on creative writing I've read so far. 

        Next find with another seller in Chikkadpally was a beautiful copy of 'Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman' by Richard P. Feynman. I see so many copies of this title but haven't bought one so far. I am rather poor in physics and mathematics so I kept away from it for a long time. But I bought it for my son in the hope that he finds the time to read it. I paid a hundred rupees for it. 

        Then I left for Abids and reached after half hour. One of the first titles I saw with the guys in front of the GPO was a book with an attractive cover. It was a copy of 'Themes in Indian History: Caste in History' edited by Ishita Banerjee-Dube, an Oxford Paperbacks publication. I bought it right away, another good addition to my collection of titles on caste that is now about a dozen titles strong. I paid a hundred and eighty rupees for this wonderful title. 

            Then I met my friends at the Star of India cafe and sat talking with them as usual about books, writers, and also movies. It was almost an hour when we decided to go our ways. Outside I spotted a copy of 'East of the Sun' by Siddhartha Sarma, a travel book on the North-East India. I already have about half a dozen such titles on travel in the North East India so I thought it would make a good addition to it and so bought it for a hundred rupees. 

The Sunday Haul (on 05-04-2026)

It started as usual last Sunday. I stepped out around ten in the morning for Abids and after breakfast of idli at Snehita I found a copy of 'Human Wrongs: Reflections on Western Global Dominance and its Impact Upon Human Rights' by Just World Trust. It was a collection of essays on various events in different parts of the world written by various people of which there were familiar names like Claude Alvares, Vandana Shiva, Ashis Nandy from India and the rest I did not know. This was with a seller at the RTC Crossroads. 

Then got into the bus to Koti and from there another bus to Abids. With a seller behind GPO near Grand I spotted a copy of 'Solitude: A Return to the Self' by Anthony Storr. 

Sometime in 2016 in an essay I read in The Guardian online there was a list of 'Top Ten Books for the Brokenhearted' and one of the titles in it was 'Solitude' by Anthony Storr. I did not know I had written down this list in a notebook that I accidentally happened to read only today. 'Solitude' is about how solitude is a necessary condition for creative people. Storr writes about how Edward Gibbon, Beethoven, Anne Sexton, Beatrice Potter and others expressed their creativity best in solitude. I got this title for a hundred rupees. 

As someone who reads a lot and aspiring to write I know the power of words and so try to find new words and their meanings. I actually read dictionaries for fun so when I saw a copy of 'Words or My Private Babel' by Farrukh Dhondy I was intrigued. I read his column in a local newspaper.

Ever since I read about it I had been looking for 'The Complete Polysyllabic Spree' by Nick Hornby which I had read was about reading. I had wondered if I would be lucky enough to find it at all. Somehow last Sunday just when I was setting out for home I wandered into the lane near Hollywood shoes and spotted a nice copy of the book. 

I am feeling anxious about the number of books I am buying at Abids every Sunday but cannot seem to put a stop to this buying spree. 

The Sunday Haul (on 29-03-2026)

 It was the sort of day when the weather tells you that summer has arrived. It was pretty hot and quite uncomfortable outdoors when I stepped out to go to Abids. I reached Chikkadpally first where I found two good titles. 

The first find was a copy of 'Indira Gandhi: Return of the Red Rose' by K. A. Abbas, published by Orient Paperbacks and I noticed that the price printed on the spine was Rs.3. 'Return of the Red Rose' is a biography of Indira Gandhi, the former Prime Minister of India, and also a sort of chronicle of events in her life that KA Abbas witnessed as a journalist. Coincidentally I spotted another book by KA Abbas on Indira Gandhi by the same publisher though it had a different title I cannot recollect now. If I see it next Sunday I will pick it up.

A long time back I had found and read 'Balkan Ghosts: A Journey through History' by Robert D. Kaplan and found it to be a wonderful read about the background and history of the Balkan nations. I loved it more because it was also a sort of travelogue cum reportage. Last Sunday the second title that I found at Chikkadpally was a beautiful copy of 'The Revenge of Geography' by Robert D. Kaplan that I got for a hundred rupees. 

At Abids in a heap of books being sold three apiece for a hundred rupees I managed to dig out a copy of 'Confrontation: The Middle East War and World Politics' by Walter Laquer. Somehow of late I have grown very interested in knowing about the Middle East and the issues festering there so this 1974 book was a timely find. With this title I have about a dozen titles on the Middle East and I guess it is high time I read all these titles at one go and get an idea about this part of the world that seems to be in a state of permanent unrest.