Last Sunday at Abids I did not find a single title worth buying. But I saw a nice copy of George Gissing's 'New Grub Street' that had a beautiful font, in a heap. I already have two copies of this book so I told my friend to pick it up as it was a classic. So he bought it on my advice. I was pleased that I helped someone buy a good title.
There was news of another cyclone in the Bay of Bengal, and the forecast had said it might rain on Sunday. But luckily it did not and the sky was clear with the sun out its full glory. I found my first title at a seller in RTC Cross Roads, a children's title. It was a copy of 'Gardy in the City of Lions' by Suniti Namjoshi that I got for only thirty rupees.
Sometime back I had found a copy of Blake Snyder's 'Save the Cat' that was about screenwriting. Last Sunday I saw a copy of 'Save the Cat! Writes a Novel' by Jessica Brody with a seller at Chikkadpally. I had not read about this book on writing a novel anywhere so I bought it. I have close to three hundred books on writing and this was another addition to the growing pile.
Saturday evening it looked like winter is beginning as the temperature went down with the air becoming cold. Sunday morning was bright and sunny as I left for Abids. I stopped at RTC X roads to check out the titles laid out on a table. I spotted a copy of 'Penguin New Writing' edited by John Lehmann, and decided to buy it when I saw inside the names of Edith Sitwell and Nelson Algren in the contents page. This was No. 34 and came at fifty rupees only though the cover was coming loose.
Next find was also at Chikkadpally with a seller at the end of the long road leading towards Narayanguda. I found a copy of 'A Room of One's Own' by Virginia Woolf, a Penguin edition. I already have a copy of this title but not this edition so I bought it after paying fifty rupees for it.
Season wise it is winter but temperature wise it is summer in Hyderabad these days. Last Sunday it was quite warm in the morning when I started for Abids. First stop was at Chikkadpally on the way to Abids and I spotted a nice book. I found a copy of 'The Making of Literature' by RA Scott-James that was about art and literature criticism. I haven't heard of the author's name before but a quick glance at random paragraphs gave the impression that it could be a good book on criticism so I bought it.
Though not officially announced it was on social media that this year's Hyderabad Book Fair dates are from 18-28 December at the NTR Stadium grounds, a venue that seems to be permanent.
More than forty years ago I had read 'The Indian Epics Retold' by R.K. Narayan that was on a shelf at home. Now I do not remember anything I had read in it but since a long time I had searched for a copy for myself. Finally, last Sunday I found a wonderful copy that had the Ramayana, Mahabharata and also had another book 'Gods, Demons, and Others' in it. It was an almost new copy but I got it for just two hundred rupees.
'Things Fall Apart' by Chinua Achebe is one book that shook me, and also made want to read more of books by African writers. Luckily I found many titles by Ngugi, and others besides almost all Achebe titles. So far I have found about half a dozen copies of Achebe's best book- 'Things Fall Apart' that I have given to friends and others. Last Sunday at Abids I found another copy in wonderful condition that I got cheap at just eighty rupees.
Sometime in May this year I had found a copy of 'The Dismantling of India' by TJS George on a WhatsApp group of a second-hand bookseller. I've read some column 'Point of View' of TJS George here and there, and found them to be sharp and biting, mostly about politics and politicians. But I haven't found his columns all at one place.
On some Sundays I wish I wouldn't find anything good at Abids because I'm buying so many books that it is causing anxiety in me. During the week the two books I had found online were delivered. They were huge tomes and I wonder when I will find the time to read them. So I did not look forward to find any good title at Abids last Sunday. But I found only one title at the last minute.
'The Contenders: Who Will Lead India Tomorrow?' by Priya Sahgal is a book of profiles of young (and some old) politicians in India who are expected to, one day, lead the country. Some of those politicians featured include Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Kumar Yadav, Asadudding Owaisi, and others.
There are quite a few books about Hyderabad, the city where I live, but I have found only a couple of them, not more than four or give. I have Syeda Imam's 'The Untold Charminar', Vanaja Banagiri's 'Hyderabad Haazir Hai', and also 'Hyderabad: a Biography' by Narendra Luther, and of course, Serish Nanisetti's 'Golconda Bagnagar Hyderabad'. Last Sunday I found a copy of 'Bhagmati: Why Hyderabad's Lost Queen is the Soul of the City' by Moupia Basu that I had read about somewhere recently. It was a new copy that I got for a little more than a hundred rupees.
A month or so ago I had spotted a copy of 'On China' by Henry Kissinger, a Penguin title, with a seller near the GPO. It was in terrible condition, with black fungus on the pages, pages that were damaged due to moisture, and not worth buying so I put it back. However, I knew that it was a good book about China, and felt I should have bought it. For the next few Sundays I did not find it and thought someone must have picked it up. I regretted not buying it since it was the content that mattered not the condition of the book. I got a pleasant surprise when I saw the same copy with the same seller last Sunday. This time I grabbed it, and added it to my collection of titles on China that I will all read one day.
There's one seller who pleads with me to buy any book from his pile that I pick up and put back after I check it out. I happened to look at the copy of 'Newly Weds' by Nell Freudenberger that he had before him and a few moments after I put it back he came running after me with the book in his hand and literally begged me to buy it and pay whatever I wanted just like he did a couple of Sundays ago. I had to buy it, of course, for his sake and also because it was a Penguin title that is almost a guarantee that it is a good read.
None of my friends had turned up at Abids last Sunday so I sat alone in Star of India cafe, and sipped on a cup of chai while reading the Preface in Henry Kissinger's 'On China' I had read a couple of essays mentioning G.N. Devy, who I learnt was a linguist and also read an essay by him somewhere recently. When I spotted the copy of 'After Amneisia: Tradition and Change in Indian Literary Criticism' by G.N. Devy. with the seller under the tree beside Star of India I took it out. A slim volume that was almost new, I read on the cover 'Winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award 1993' and decided to buy it. I got it for just hundred rupees.
It had rained quite heavily on the night of Saturday and well into the morning of last Sunday. I had thought the visit to Abids would be a washout due to the rain. But somehow the rain stopped by eight in the morning of Sunday though the sky was overcast. I thought I would go to Abids anyway so I left around eleven in the morning and as usual stopped at Chikkadpally where I found a title I had seen a decade ago.
The previous Sunday I had seen a nice copy of 'Why Read the Classics?' by Italo Calvino with a seller beside the Star of India cafe, that I did not buy. The reason is that I already have a copy and so did not want another one though I was strongly tempted to pick it up. That day I felt pleased with myself that I had resisted temptation and had not thrown money on buying another copy of a title I already had. However last Sunday when I noticed that the title was still on the shelf unsold I felt sadness and pity for it and decided to take it home with me. The reason I gave myself for buying was that this copy had a different cover, and an attractive one at that, than the one I had at home.
Somehow autobiographies and memoirs by writers are something I cannot resist buying especially if they haappen to be by Indian writers. When I saw a copy of 'An Unfinished Autobiography' by Indira Goswami in a heap of books selling for Rs.50 I grabbed it. I had read one title by Indira Goswami a long time back and thought I would know more about her in her autobiography. It was translated from the Assamese by P. Kotoky.
I had been seeing this title since many years but did not buy thinking it would be of no use. But then when I opened the pages of 'A Glossary of Literary Terms' by M.H. Abrams that I saw with another seller, and read a few entries I realized that it would help me a lot in understanding literary criticism that I often read. I got it for just fifty rupees.
I have a list of titles and writers I haven't found yet and am desperate to find. Sometimes I think I will never find them, such as 'The Palm Wine Drunkard' by Amos Tutuola, which I am sure I will never find at Abids or anywhere else. In that list was Tove Ditlevsen about whose books I read only high praise and was on my list of writers I haven't yet found. So when I saw a copy of 'Childhood, Youth, Dependency' by Tove Ditlevsen on a creaky wooden shelf with a seller near the GPO I tried not to show my excitement when I asked the seller to take the book out. The cover was a lovely one and I was ready to pay whatever the seller asked but somehow got it at a price lower than what I had expected the seller to ask.
Last Sunday I had an important visitor to show around Abids. It was an editor of an online newssite, who came along with two others but had a short time to look around. After a quick round of chai at Star of India we went to the Best Books store, and shortly afterwards they left. Then I began my browsing and managed to find three titles.
It had rained on Saturday night and early in the morning too it was cloudy as if it was going to rain later in the day. The forecast was for rain on Sunday as well as Monday. But somehow it did not rain though the sky was overcast all day. As usual I started off my trip to the Sunday second-hand book market at Abids with the first stop at Chikkadpally. But before walking to Chikkadpally I stopped at the seller in the corner at RTC Crossroads.
I have only two titles on China, a country I wish to know about in detail especially its history. I think it is a fascinating country to know more about so when I saw a copy of 'China: From the Opium Wars to the 1911 Revolution' by Jean Chesneaux, Marannie Bastid, Marie-Claire Bergere I picked it up. I had seen this title the previous Sunday but had not bought it feeling it was like a textbook. But last Sunday when I looked at closely and also skimmed through some pages I decided it was worth reading.
Another bright and sunny morning on the Sunday following Independence Day which might be a reason why there was a higher than average crowd at Abids browsing the books laid out on the pavement.
But before reaching Abids I stopped at Chikkadpally and picked up a title I had seen the previous Sunday. I bought the copy of 'Annie John' by Jamaica Kincaid with an attractive cover. It is a slim novel.
Next find was a copy of 'Screenplay: Foundations of Screenwriting' by Syd Field that I already have a copy of. I wanted to find out how much I would have to pay for it and asked the seller. When he said a hundred rupees I thought it was cheaper and so bought my second copy of this book.
The best haul of Sunday was the copy of 'Modern India: 1885-1947' by Sumit Sarkar who had passed away earlier in the week. I had seen so many tributes to him on social media and I wondered why I had not heard much about him before.
A couple of years ago someone got in touch with me and asked if I would find a copy of 'Dibs in Search of Self' by Virginia M. Axline at Abids for her. Until then I used to see copies regularly but I searched for it in vain until I found it a few weeks later and sent it to her. Last Sunday when I saw another copy I decided to buy it and keep it with me in case someone else needed a copy.
Some years ago I had found a copy of 'My Several Worlds' by Pearl S. Buck that I read and later got lost in my collection. I wanted to read it again but couldn't locate the copy so when I spotted another similar copy I picked it up. When I asked the seller how much it was he told me to pay whatever I wished to. This kind of thing puts me in a bind and I end up paying more than what I think the book is. I paid a hundred rupees for this old copy.
'A little after I found Pearl S. Buck's autobiography I spotted the worlds 'Chinese Literature' June 1952' on the cover of a book on a makeshift shelf of a seller near the Bata store. I looked at it as it is very rare to find English versions of Chinese literature and so bought it. Inside there were pages of wonderful colour paintings.
So this is how bibliophiles like me end up buying multiple copies!
The blog enters the second decade. I've completed nineteen years of this blog last Friday.
After a few days of cloudy weather and downpours in the city it was a bright and sunny morning in Hyderabad last Sunday. It was perfect weather for being outdoors. I set out for Abids after breakfast of a nice rava dosa in Snehitha restaurant under the RTC X Roads metro station. First stop was at Chikkadpally where I found all the four titles of the Sunday haul.
The first title I found was a nice copy of 'Rethinking Democracy' by Rajni Kothari. I had heard Rajni Kothari's name since a long time but haven't read anything by him. So finding this book on democracy in India feels like a lucky find.
I had returned home early morning on Sunday after three days of travel and a few hours later set off for Abids to forage for second-hand titles on the pavements.
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So late into July there is no sign of the monsoon rains everyone is looking forward to. El Nino is showing its effect and as per forecasts it may not rain until the last week of July. Expectedly it was a sunny, bright but uncomfortably warm morning last Sunday in Hyderabad. My moods weren't exactly normal and I felt like not buying anything at Abids and only wanted to look at the titles and return home empty handed.
All that resolve vanished when I saw a copy of 'Capitalism: A Ghost Story' by Arundhati Roy at a seller at RTC Crossroads just after getting down from the bus. It is a slim book not more than fifty pages about how capitalism works and gave a few examples relating to India. I finished the book over chai in Star of India later.
I read the name Hesiod in some book about Greek classics and last Sunday after the chai at Star of India I wandered to the seller beneath the tree where I had found a book the previous Sunday. I spotted a copy of 'Theogony and Works and Days' by Hesiod tr by M.L. West that had a beautiful illustration on the cover. This too was a slim book of less than two hundred pages that I got for hundred rupees.
I don't know how many copies of 'The Great Railway Bazaar' by Paul Theroux I found all these years and how many copies I gave away. I've bought every copy of this title and other titles by Theroux and so when I saw the copy of 'The Great Railway Bazaar' on the pavement that another person had previously had said he wouldn't give it for less than a hundred and fifty rupees. I saw it for the past two weeks and last Sunday the original seller was there and when I asked he said to give fifty rupees!
Early in the morning while reading the Sunday papers in an Irani cafe I thought it would rain during the day as it was cloudy and there was also a light drizzle when I stepped out to go home. But after I got ready and was ready to leave for Abids it was bright and sunny.
The first find was a copy of 'The Man of Fifty' by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe with a seller at the RTC Cross Roads just before Chikkadpally. I bought it because it had a foreword by A.S. Byatt and got it for fifty rupees. It is a short book of less than seventy pages that I can read in a couple of hours but when I will find that much time is the question.
At one of the sellers at Chikkadpally I found a copy of 'All the Way to Heaven' by Stephen Alter, his memoir of a childhood spent in Mussoorie. Though he is an American he spent all his life in India so this seems very interesting.
The best find of last Sunday was a copy of 'The Best of Raja Rao' Katha Books, that I almost did not buy because I hesitated before checking out the books with this seller under a tree a little beside the Star of India cafe. Somehow I had decided to see as I had time and spotted this wonderful book with a pencil drawing of the author on the attractive cover. This has his essays, short stories, excerpts from his novels and more. It is the right thing to dip into occasionally. This did not come cheap though as I had to pay two hundred rupees for it.
The last book I found in a heap of fifty rupees books. I saw a copy of 'Ghosts by Daylight: A Memoir of War' and Love by Janine Di Giovanni, a war correspondent's memoir of her marriage, her work reporting on the war in Sarajevo. This seems very interesting as there are very few books by women war correspondents that I have read. This is the first.
The weather forecast for Sunday had said that it would be cloudy all day but it was bright and sunny almost all day, at least while I outdoors in the morning. I set out for Abids with a plan to pick up the two titles I had seen at Abids but did not pick up. But before reaching Abids I stopped at Chikkadpally and found a copy of '21st Century English Novel in India: Emerging Issues and Challenges' Ed: Jagdish Batra. Somehow nowadays I am reading such titles on criticism so I picked it up though I had to pay two hundred rupees for this hardcover title.
Though I have a copy at home I couldn't resist buying the almost new copy of 'Raag Darbari' by Shri Shukla that I saw with a seller. I bought so I can give it to someone who wanted to read the English version. Incidentally, I have two different editions of the original in Hindi that I am yet to read. I got this copy for fifty rupees.
One title that I had seen the previous Sunday was the copy of 'Alpha Beta: How Our Alphabet Changed the Modern World' by John Man that, fortunately, no one had picked up. It is about the alphabet and how it made a difference in the modern world. I bought it because I need it for a project I am working on. I got it for a hundred rupees.
