A Midweek Haul

The Sunday before the last Sunday by something I can only consider a miracle I got to visit the World Book Fair in New Delhi on the last day and also picked up six books. Last Sunday I left for Abids half eager and half-reluctant. As I had already picked up 17 books during the month I wanted to avoid adding more books that I inevitably buy at Abids. Fortunately I was able to avoid buying books though there was one title I now feel I should have bought. I had seen a nice copy of ‘Narcopolis’ by Jeet Thayil that I did not buy for some reason.

However, on Tuesday I was passing through the Sangeet circle and stopped at the make-shift second hand book stall at the place where once Sangeet theater stood. I thought I’d just look at the titles on the shelves just to satisfy my curiosity. But I ended up buying two books. Of late I have consciously begun to buy collections of short stories particularly those written by Indian writers, both in English as well as regional languages. At the World Book Fair in New Delhi one of the titles I had found was Bilal Tanweer’s ‘The Scatter Here is Too Great’ which is a collection of short stories. Last month at the Hyderabad Book Fair I had found a collection of short stories by Kalki Krishnamurthy.

At this make shift book stall near Sangeet I saw a collection of stories by Joginder Paul, a name I am not familiar with. These were English translations of the 17 stories originally in Urdu. Sukrita Paul Kumar and Naghma Zafir were the two translators in this fine collection published by National Book Trust. These were the seventeen stories: The Demon; Dera Baba Nanak; Back Lane; Green House; Ambush; Khodu Baba ka Maqbara; Without Graves; Harambe; Doves; The Spell; Looking Back; Dadiyan; The Migrant; The Dying Sun; Eighteen Adhyaye; Stick; A Flock of Birds.

A long time ago I had read ‘The Old Patagonian Express’ by Paul Theroux that I managed to find in the British Library. After a long search I found a hardcover copy of this title a couple of years back. I planned to read it again because it was a fascinating account of Paul Theroux’s journey through the Americas. I never did find the time to read this book a second time. I try to recommend it to people who ask me for suggestions. If I have spare copies of books that I want others to read I give it to them. This is one of the reasons why I buy multiple copies of the titles by authors I like.

I found a paper back copy of ‘The Old Patagonian Express’ by Paul Theroux in a shelf in this store near Sangeet. When the seller said he would give me both these books for a hundred rupees I bought them. TOPE was a good copy though the cover at the back had its edges torn away in an interesting pattern.

The Sunday Haul at the World Book Fair, New Delhi

A couple of years ago I had visited Pragati Maidan for another book fair that was smaller. At that time too I had bought a few books in the second hand book stalls. At the World Book Fair I did not expect they would allow second hand book stalls but I found a couple of stalls selling old and rare books. There were also sellers offering books at bargain prices. The sheer number of stalls, small and big at the several halls took me by surprise. Not surprisingly, the venue was thronging with enormous crowds buying up books. Only a month ago I had been to the Hyderabad Book Fair and now I was at another book fair.

The day before, at Hyderabad, I had happened to meet a friend who was a voracious reader with a fine taste for books. She had told me that she had read Perumal Murugan’s ‘One Part Woman’ and said it was very good. In the cavernous stall that Penguin Random House had set up at the WBF it was so packed with visitors that it was difficult to even take a proper look at all the titles on display. Somehow I managed to quickly scan the titles on the shelves and was surprised to find ‘One Part Woman’ that I decided to buy. There was a twenty percent discount so I got it at a fairly decent price.

At one stall belonging to ‘Sangeeta Books’ there were old hardcover volumes of titles published in India in the thirties and forties maybe. There weren’t any title that I found interesting. On another shelf I saw paperbacks that seemed interesting. I was hoping I would be able to find a copy of Arun Joshi’s ‘The Survivors’ that was proving quite elusive. However, I did not find it here too but found an old copy of ‘The Seven Storey Mountain’ by Thomas Merton. Then I found a book on Graham Greene by David Pryce-Jones that seemed interesting. I am currently reading ‘A Burnt Out Case’ by Graham Greene which made me buy this title in the Writers and Critics series. I got Thomas Merton’s book for a hundred rupees and paid fifty rupees for the book on Graham Greene.

In a few corners and narrow spaces scattered around in the halls I saw books stacked on a few shelves and also heaped on the ground. They were being sold at the rate of three titles for a hundred rupees and some books were being sold for hundred rupees. There were quite a few such sellers in almost all the hall I visited. All the books they had seemed to be brand new and everyone seemed to have almost the same titles. At one such seller I found a nice copy of ‘They Came Like Swallows’ by William Maxwell and ‘The Scatter Here is Too Great’ by Bilal Tanweer. I bought these copies for a hundred rupees each.

In another corner I saw heaps of hardcover books that seemed to be mostly autobiographies. One could pick up three books for hundred rupees. I was not interested in picking up hardcover books since my bag was already quite heavy. Nevertheless I wanted to see if there was anything interesting that I could find. I think there were more people buying these books in the corners than at the stalls where they seemed to mostly look. There was a crowd of youngsters squatting on the ground and going through heap of hardcovers on the floor. I managed to make my way into the crowd and was able to find a beautiful copy of ‘A Cook’s Tour’ by Anthony Bourdain. I got it for only fifty rupees.

It took my nearly four hours to visit most of the stalls in the halls that were located at quite a distance from each other. Going from one hall to another took up a lot of time. There were so many halls that I do not know if was able to visit all of them. I couldn’t find any more titles to buy for myself but I bought books for my kid and also for my nephews. At around four in the afternoon I decided to leave. It had been a long day and I felt tired. But I was glad I had managed to visit the World Book Fair at last and find half a dozen titles.
Back at my brother’s home I got to read the Sunday papers. In the Sunday magazine of The Hindu Jaya Bhattacharji Rose had written in her column that there seemed to be more crowds than usual at the WBF. I though her observation was absolutely on the mark. Being the last day of the fair many people seemed to have come to buy books. Only last month there was the annual Book Fair in Hyderabad and compared to WBF it seemed quite small.

2016 Trips: Trip No. 1- To New Delhi Once Again

The New Year showed how lucky I am when it comes to matters related to books. It had been turning out to be an impossible dream of mine of visiting the World Book Fair at New Delhi at least once. I had been dreaming about it since the past few years. Usually the World Book Fair is held sometime in February every year for about ten days I guess. This year somehow it was advanced to January and 17th January, a Sunday, was the last day of the WBF.

Last Saturday, i.e., 16th of January an unexpected chance opened up for me to go to New Delhi on urgent mission related to office work. A Public Interest Litigation on drought was coming up for hearing before the Supreme Court on Monday (18th Jan) and the Government advocate wanted an affidavit to be handed over him before the hearing at any cost. We had the affidavit ready but the question remained how to send it to New Delhi by Monday morning. I sensed an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone and volunteered to travel to Delhi.

On Sunday morning I was on way to New Delhi on an early morning flight. As the plane took off I thanked my stars for aligning in such a way as to make one of my dreams come true. After landing at Delhi I rushed to the advocate’s office and handed over the affidavit. I was relieved when he told me that it was okay after he had read it. I had drafted it hurriedly and had got it approved by my boss the day before. I was told that Pragati Maidan, the venue of the WBF was quite close. It was almost noon so I decided to have an early lunch and rushed to Pragati Maidan and spent half a day browsing in the stalls. I bought a total of six books for myself and returned to my brother’s home to spend the night there. I was returning on Monday.

Compared to Hyderabad it was quite cold in New Delhi with the temperature somewhere around 10 degrees. I had come prepared but I found it difficult to ward off the chill. The next morning after a nice breakfast I left for the airport. My flight was at half past twelve and I reached the airport quite early. I spent more than an hour browsing in the airport stalls. There seem to be newer stalls every time I come to the IGI domestic terminal. However I couldn’t find a single bookstall anywhere which was quite surprising. I was back in Hyderabad by half past four and noticed that the weather was fantastic with a warm sun.

The Sunday Haul (on 10-01-2016)

On the first Sunday of 2016, which was the previous Sunday, I ended up with a haul of five books. Since it was the first haul of the year at Abids I did not mind that I had five books despite the promise I made to myself that I would limit myself to buying just one or two books every Sunday. I had made that promise to myself because at the end of 2015 I had bought more than 230 books which was a record. I had no intention of breaking that record and wanted to restrict myself as much as possible. But, once again I broke that promise because last Sunday I ended up buying six more books at Abids.

I do not remember if I have a copy of ‘The Snows of Kilimanjaro’ by Ernest Hemingway but when I saw a beautiful and almost brand new copy of this same title I couldn’t resist buying it. The seller was someone who automatically reduced the price for me even before I could bargain because he knew I wouldn’t bargain with him. I got this book for only thirty rupees. It has the following eighteen stories: The Snows of Kilimanjaro; Up in Michigan; On the Quai at Smyrna; Indian Camp; The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife; The End of Something; The Three-day Blow; The Battler; A Very Short Story; Soldier’s Home; The Revolutionist; Mr and Mrs Eliot; Cat in the Rain; Out of Season; Cross-country Snow; My Old Man; Big Two-hearted River: Part I; and Big Two-hearted River Part II.

The second find was again with the same seller. After paying for the Ernest Hemingway book I spotted another slim book of poems. It was ‘The Emperor of Ice-Cream and Other Poems’ by Wallace Stevens. This collection has eighty-two poems including ‘Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird’ which I read was one of his well-known poems. One of the reasons I was glad I found this book was that the seller gave it to me for just thirty rupees. I think it is Wallace Stevens on the cover.

Sometime back I had found ‘The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz’ by Mordecai Richler at Abids. I had picked up this book from a heap of books being sold cheap. Coincidentally in the same place and in the same heap I found another of his titles- ‘Broadsides- Reviews and Opinions.’ I picked up this book because I like Richler’s humor and this was a collection of nineteen articles. I got this book for thirty rupees only. The book was in good condition and appeared almost new.

The next find was a classic of Telugu literature. I had planned to read at least one Telugu novel last year too since I had not been keeping that promise since the past few years. One reason was that I couldn’t decide which book to read first. Also, I did not have many Telugu books but one book that I was looking for was ‘Kanyasulkam’ by Gurujada Apparao. I found this book at last at Abids last Sunday. This edition was published sometime in 1985 and had an introduction by the great poet Sri Sri. I got this book for a measly twenty rupees. I am certainly going to read this book this year.

Sometimes I blindly pick up titles published by Penguin knowing that it would be something good or else they wouldn’t have published it. One of the reasons I end up buying books by authors I hadn’t read about is the Penguin logo on the cover that convinces me to pay up for it. So when I saw a Penguin title ‘Sleep No More’ by George Sims I picked it up. I haven’t heard of George Sims but I am sure it would be a good book I told myself as I added it to the haul.

The last book I found last Sunday at Abids was an interesting one. It was ‘The Professor and the Madman’ by Simon Winchester, which, as it was mentioned on the cover, is ‘a tale of murder, insanity, and the making of the Oxford English Dictionary.’ It was something I would love to read. I had read about this book a long time and had forgotten about it convinced that I would never find it. However, last Sunday I not only found it I also bought it. It did not come cheap though, I had to pay eighty rupees for it.

The Sunday Haul (on 03-01-2016)

A week after the Hyderabad Book Fair ended and twenty four books later I thought of stopping going to Abids for a couple of weeks. But some habits are difficult to avoid even temporarily. So I made that familiar trip to Abids that I make every Sunday but with a resolve not to buy anything until I had read at least half a dozen of the two dozen books that I had picked up at the Book Fair.

However strong the resolve not to buy any more books might be it easily dissolves when I come across books by authors like Ross Macdonald. Ever since I came to learn about Ross Macdonald and his Lew Archer series of novels and also read a few titles like ‘The Instant Enemy,’ ‘The Ivory Grin,’ and ‘The Wycherly Woman’ I was hooked to his writing style. The previous Sunday I had seen four Ross Macdonald titles- The Galton Case, The Chill, The Moving Target, and The Underground Man. I had the first three titles with me except ‘The Underground Man’ that I wasn’t exactly looking for.

Sometime back I had purchased second hand copies of eight Ross Macdonald titles online. This lot of eight titles included three titles I saw at Abids. My desire to buy all the four titles was dampened by the seller who quoted an abnormally high price after he saw the gleam in my eye when I spotted the books. Fresh after shelling out nearly three thousand books for the two dozen titles that I had bought at the Book Fair only the week before I was not in a mood to spend on more books. So I had walked away reluctantly after an unsuccessful bout of bargaining with the seller who was in no mood to budge from the price he had quoted.

But last Sunday I decided it wasn’t such a high price after all and ended up buying all the four Ross Macdonald titles- The Galton Case, The Chill, The Moving Target, and The Underground Man that I kept and gave the rest of the first three titles to one of my younger brothers. I bought the four titles for forty rupees each which was considerably less than the seventy five rupees I spent on each of the titles I had bought online from Afzal of Matunga.

Another book that I found at Abids last Sunday was ‘Arab Gold’ by MT Vasudevan Nair and NP Mohamed. This is the second or third MT Vasudevan Nair title that I had found and I was glad to pick it up. It did not take me very long to decide to buy this book that had a picture of two golden coconut trees on the cover which was totally black.

So I began 2016 with another medium sized haul of five titles. I was glad that I found another Ross Macdonald title to add to my collection that it growing gradually. I don’t know how many books I will end up buying during the year but I not want to break the last year’s record of nearly 230 books bought.

The 2015 Hyderabad Book Fair Haul- Part IV of IV

Most of the time I went alone to the book fair alone and those were the days when I found several good books. Once I went with the family and managed to find only one book. Another visit was with my son and once again I could find only one book. On a solo trip to the book fair which happened to be on a day when it was Christmas I found one book. But this one book was a title that I was happy to find because it was by a famous travel writer.

Travel books happen to be another genre I love to read because I like to travel. Around a quarter of the books in my collection is made of books by travels writers like Paul Theroux, Ryszard Kapuscinski, Pico Iyer, Jonathan Raban, WG Sebald, Bruce Chatwin, and also Jan Morris whose style of writing I like immensely. On my fifth visit to the book fair the only book I found was ‘ Pax Britannica’ by Jan Morris. I found this book in a stall of one of the sellers at Abids. He was the one who gave me a pass to the book fair that allowed free entry on all the days. Last year too he had done me the same favor. Though I do not buy many books from him at Abids but whenever I buy for him I pay him whatever price he quotes. He is one of those few sellers at Abids I do not bargain with.

Anyway I noticed that Pax Britannica was the second title in a trilogy about the British Empire called ‘The Pax Britannica Trilogy. The other two titles were: ‘Heaven’s Command’ and ‘Farewell the Trumpets.’’ Now I am in a dilemma. Should I read ‘Pax Britannica’ right away or wait until I find the other two titles in the trilogy. Though finding them seems impossible I am going to look for them until I find them somewhere. This is why people like me always learn about more titles to read. But this is one Jan Morris title I am not going to read right away.

I was back at the book fair again on the next day. But this time I was with friends- Umashankar and Daniel. I managed to find more books, four to be exact. The first find was ‘The High Window’ by Raymond Chandler which was a Penguin edition. It looked an ancient copy wrapped in plastic that was once clear. Though I already have a copy of this book I bought it for a hundred rupees since it is quite impossible to find Raymond Chandler titles.

The second book I found was another screenwriting title, the fourth such title related to movies I found at the book fair. It was ‘Aristotle’s Poetics for Screenwriters’ by Michael Tierno that I got for hundred rupees. It looks like fate is conspiring to make me read as many script writing books as possible so I could finish the script I am working on.

In the same stall I saw a nice copy of ‘Jaya Ganga’ by Vijay Singh and it was a Penguin edition. A long time ago I had read about this book but hadn’t come across it anywhere. I hadn’t planned to return for a final visit next day which happened to be last day of the book fair. I hesitated for some time but ultimately gave in and bought ‘Jaya Ganga.’

My final visit to the book fair ended with a lucky find. In one stall somehow my eyes fell on a heap of children’s books kept on the ground beneath a table at the front of the stall. I spotted ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’ by Jean Rhys on the top of the heap. The board above said ‘Rs 20’ which was enough to make me buy it. Another reason was that the copy I had at home was heavily underlined on almost all the pages. This was a pristine copy, cheap, and the publisher was W.W. Norton and Company.

I bought a total of 24 books at the book fair this year!

The 2015 Hyderabad Book Fair Haul- Part III of IV

It appeared quite difficult to restrain myself from going to the Book Fair on the third consecutive day but I managed but only for a day. I was back the next day for my third visit and landed three good titles.

Being someone who reads a lot and buys books at every possible opportunity I try to read about books, reading, and about collecting books. I have a few such titles such as ‘How to Read and Why’ by Harold Bloom, ‘Ruined by Reading’ by Lynne Sharon Schwartz, ‘The Groaning Shelf’ by Pradeep Sebastian, and in my view, the best of such titles- ‘Ex-Libris’ by Anne Fadiman. Finding this title a few years back was one of the happiest days of my life. Sometime in April while at Goa I found my second copy of this wonderful, little book. Luckily I found another title edited by Anne Fadiman which was ‘Rereadings.’

‘Rereadings’ has seventeen writers on their experiences of rereading their favorite books. Of the seventeen I could recognize only Allegra Goodman, Vivian Gornick, Pico Iyer, Philip Lopate, Vijay Seshadri only and the rest were new names to me. However it seemed an interesting book that I want to read very soon. It was a hardcover copy in good condition with jacket intact for which I paid a hundred and fifty rupees.

Though I read a lot I cannot write as well as some of the authors I like. I haven’t been able to write as well as I wish I could despite my best efforts since more than a decade. In an endless effort to improve my writing skills I keep reading books on writing in the hope that someday I’ll be able to crack it. One of the better books on writing that I had read is ‘On Writing Well’ by William Zinsser. I found my first copy of this title a long time back and till now I must have bought nearly half a dozen copies of this book. At the book fair I found yet another copy of ‘On Writing Well’ that I bought for a hundred and fifty rupees.

Before the book fair began I had a feeling that I would be able to find some titles that I am desperately searching for. Two titles in the final Len Deighton trilogy were in this list of books I wanted badly- Spy Hook, and Spy Sinker. The day before on my second visit to the book fair I found a nice copy of ‘Spy Sinker’ and this day I found the other missing title- ‘Spy Hook’ which was again a hardcover copy. This was also an Alfred Knopf edition that did not fit in with the rest of the titles in the three trilogies that I had in my bookshelf.

I was back the next day again to the book fair that seemed to be attracting unprecedented crowds every day. In fact it was so crowded that I found it difficult to make my way into some stalls and in those that I managed to get in by squeezing past I was unable to take a good look at the books on the shelves. However, I managed to find a brand new and beautiful copy of ‘The Foreigner’ by Arun Joshi. I can never let go of any title by Arun Joshi that I come across though I own at least two copies of each of his half a dozen titles except ‘The Survivors’ that I haven’t been able to find anywhere.

At the end of my fourth visit to the book fair I bought a total of eighteen books. If I bought eighteen books in just three visits in the four days of the book fair then I realized I would end up buying nearly fifty books if I went every day for the remaining seven days. I decided that I would buy only one book on each visit if I can help it.

Tomorrow: The 2015 Hyderabad Book Fair Haul- Part IV of IV

The 2015 Hyderabad Book Fair Haul- Part II of IV

After finding six good titles on the first day of the book fair I was eager to go back again the next day. I did not want to wait until it was time to leave the office in the evening before going to the book fair. So after lunch at two in the afternoon I asked for permission and left the office. I headed straight to the venue of the book fair which was not too far from the Secretariat. I planned to look around for a couple of hours until half past four and return to the office. It went according to plan except I hadn’t expected to return from the book fair on the second day with nine books. It was not only one of the biggest hauls I’ve made this year but also one of the best hauls containing some really fantastic titles I wouldn’t have found at Abids or anywhere else.

Sometime recently I read an article in Caravan by Anjum Hasan titled ‘Novel Renditions’which about English translations of some of the best known novels in Hindi written by famous names. I wrote down the list of these novels which is why I must have remembered some of them. One of the titles in this list was ‘Tyagpatra’ by Jainendra. I spotted it in one of the second hand book stalls that I had already visited on the first day. It did not take long for me to decide to buy it since anything that Anjum Hasan writes about is worth reading. I got this book for a hundred and fifty rupees.

Similarly, after I had found ‘Tears of Autumn’ by Charles Mccarry at Abids a couple of years ago I picked it up on a hunch and also read it soon after. I came across a list of six novels somewhere on the net described as little known novels that were extremely good. One of the titles on the list was ‘I Capture the Castle’ by Dodie Smith that I somehow remembered. I saw this same title in a section of children’s books in a stall of second hand book set up by someone from Mumbai. It was quite a thick tome running into more than five hundred pages. I wondered if it was children but picked it up anyhow since I was getting it for only a hundred rupees.

Another good author I discovered entirely by chance was Jayne Anne Phillips. Sometime in 2013 I guess I found her collection of short stories titled ‘Fast Lanes’ at Abids. I read it soon after and was completely enamored by the stories and as well as the author’s style. The stories were completely different from what I had read till then. Since then I have been looking for other titles by this author. Luckily, I found ‘Shelter’ which was a novel by Jayne Anne Phillips in one of the stalls selling second hand books. I did not waste any time thinking whether to buy it or not but simply bought it for a hundred and fifty rupees.

One author I’ve been looking forward to read is Anees Salim, especially after he won the Hindu Fiction prize last year. Though it wasn’t the title that got him the prize I found ‘Tales from a Vending Machine’ and got it for only hundred rupees. The book was in a good condition and appeared almost new. I felt lucky to have found an Anees Salim title at last.

In the same stall I saw a good copy of ‘Lolita’ by Vladimir Nabokov which was a nice Penguin copy that appeared almost brand new. I tried to recollect if I already owned a copy of this title and convinced that I did not own a copy. The seller was one of the guys who sells his wares at Abids and he wished me effusively as if seeing a long lost friend. I felt flattered by his attention and bought the book paying a hundred rupees for it.

At the next second hand book stall that I visited I found a hard-to-locate title- ‘All About H.Hatterr’ by G.V. Desani. It was a copy of the same edition that I had found quite recently. Though I already own three copies of Hatterr I wanted to buy this copy too. Iknnew I would spend a restless night if I did not buy it and would return the next day looking for it. So I spared myself all that agony and bought my fourth copy of ‘All About H. Hatterr’ by G.V. Desani. I also thought that it was high time I actually began reading it.

I’ve recently begun rereading the Len Deighton trilogies. I have almost finished reading the first trilogy- Berlin Game, Mexico Set, and London Match- with only a few pages of ‘London Match’ left to read. I plan to begin the first title in the next trilogy- Faith, Hope, and Charity that I have a complete set of. My only worry is that I might finish reading the second trilogy too before I find two titles in the last trilogy that are missing in my collection. I do not have ‘Spy Hook’ and ‘Spy Sinker’. I saw a hard cover copy of ‘Spy Sinker’ but it was an edition different from the Grafton Books editions that I had of all the titles in the three trilogies. Finally I realized it was more important for me to have all the titles so that I could finish reading all the trilogies rather than worry about matching copies of the same edition. Plus, it was coming cheap at just fifty rupees.

The budding screen writer inside me almost jumped with joy after spotting a title called ‘Secrets of Film Writing’ by Tom Lazarus. Finding it triggered an internal debate that went like this- Would buying this title really make me begin the script that I have been fiddling with since more than a decade? What if it contains the one piece of advice that I need badly to help me complete the script and one that I would miss learning if I do not buy this book? After a brief but obviously one sided debate I gave up and bought the book. Someday I will shut him up I told myself after shelling out a hundred rupees for the book that I hope will have some good advice that would help me finish the script for an action packed film that will have Puri Jagannath or VV Vinayak come running to me to beg for it.

After the turn of the budding screen writer it was the turn of the budding chef/cook inside me. I began another internal debate with him after spotting ‘Eating Indian’ by Chitrita Bannerjee. I was feeling hungry by then since it was more than two hours since I had been looking for books at the book fair and was craving for a cup of tea. I guess the hunger and the fact that this was a Penguin title settled the debate and I ended up buying this book. With this title I had picked up a total of nine books on my second visit to the book fair.


Tomorrow: The 2015 Hyderabad Book Fair Haul- Part III of IV

The 2015 Hyderabad Book Fair Haul- Part I of IV

If you are anything like me you probably will not swoon or faint if I tell you how many books I bought at the ten day Hyderabad Book Fair that ended on Sunday. If there is anything that’ll make me go out of control it is books. Then if there is anything that will make me go totally out of control then it is book fair. The problem with book fairs is that book lovers like me cannot get enough. Nnot only do they happen only once a year, there are too many stalls and they go on for nearly ten days which makes it impossible for someone like me to buy just one or two books. I ended up buying a total of 24 books, all of them second hand, by the way.

Though I’ve been to almost all the Book Fair held in Hyderabad every year I always get excited when the dates of the year’s book fair are announced. More than a month ago I read that bout the dates of the 29th Hyderabad Book Fair in the newspapers. Since then I had been counting the ays to the day when the Book Fair was supposed to begin on 18th of December. As is my habit I was there at the book fair in the NTR Stadium on the very first day. I land there on the first day in the hope of finding some good second hand books before the eager hordes descend. However I was surprised to find that the hordes had already descended by the time I reached the book fair around six in the evening.

I was surprised at the huge crowd that had come on the first day itself which was a bit unusual since on the inaugural day nobody bothers to turn up. I had a lot of difficulty moving around I the stalls craning my neck this way and that way to look at the titles of the books arranged in a haphazard manner. Then at the second or the third secondhand book stall I entered I found the first of the treasure trove I managed to dig up over the six visits I made to the book fair. On my first visit on the first day I managed to find six wonderful titles.

The first book I found was ‘Kalki- Selected Stories’ translated by Gowri Ramnarayan. Frankly, I hadn’t heard of Kalki R. Krishnamurthy until I picked this book after I saw the Penguin imprint. I read inside that Kalki R. Krishnamurthy was a pioneer of modern Tamil literature and is best known for his historical fiction in Tamil, a genre in which he remains unsurpassed. He was also the editor of the Tamil weekly, Ananda Vikatan. Following my resolve to read as much regional literature as possible I picked up this collection that has a dozen stories: The Letter; The Poison Cure; The Rebirth of Srikanthan; The Governor’s Visit; Rural Fantasy; The Tiger King; Sivakozhundu of Tiruvazhundur; The Big Swelling Sea; The S.S. Menaka; The Ruined Fort; Veenai Bhavani; and Madatevan’s Spring.

At another stall I found another titles that I had only heard about a long back. It was ‘The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao’ by Junot Diaz. This book too did not come cheap and I hesitated for a long time about spending another hundred and fifty rupees on this book. I thought that since I had not come across this title at Abids all these years it was unlikely that I would find it in the future. It was in good condition and even had a book mark inside so I bought it.

I went in the next second hand book stall not really expecting that I would find a book that I was really desperately looking for ever since I heard the author’s name. I had heard about ‘Get Carter’ by Ted Lewis a couple of years back and by a stroke of luck I had found its screenplay. Later Uma gifted the actual novel ‘Get Carter’ on my birthday last year. I was happy but I fantasized about finding a title by Ted Lewis at Abids or somewhere at a second hand book store. That fantasy came true when I happened to look down a crazily arranged bookshelf, and saw at the very bottom the title ‘Jack Carter and the Mafia Pigeon’ by Ted Lewis. I felt a thrill run up my spine and goosebumps on my skin as I slowly retrieved the book. I checked it carefully and found that it was in pretty good condition with all pages intact. Stamped on several pages indicated that this copy was from ‘Reader’s Corner’ Napean Road, Bombay. I wondered how much the guy would ask and expected the price to be about two hundred rupees or so. I nearly fainted when the seller asked for just fifty rupees. In all my twenty five years or so of book hunting I never felt so happy as on that day finding a Ted Lewis title at last.

My streak of luck did not end and was only just beginning. I have always dreamt of writing a script for a blockbuster action movie that would make me rich beyond imagination. That dream is what has make me buy more than a dozen books on script writing. However I am yet to finish the script that I had started almost a decade ago. Just a couple of weeks ago I had found a book that had four screenplays of Woody Allen. I was very thrilled to find Ingmar Bergman’s autobiography, ‘The Magic Lantern’ at the next stall I visited. I grabbed it and greedily looked at the books displayed if there were any more such titles. I was stunned to find ‘Making Movies’ by Sidney Lumet in the same stack. I paid three hundred for these two books.

The last title I found was ‘Writers on Writing’ by Alison Gibs that I saw at the last second hand book stall that I decided to check out before calling it a day. This book had ten top writers sharing their writing experiences and how they dealt with the various steps that go into their writing. There’s Jeffrey Archer, Beryl Bainbridge, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Frederick Forsyth, James Herbert, Elizabeth Jane Howard, P.D. James, Wendy Perriam, Craig Thomas, and Fay Weldon featured in this wonderful book that I got for only hundred rupees.

The Sunday Haul (on 20-12-2015)

The haul of just three books that I found at Abids last Sunday was peanuts compared to the nearly two dozen books I found at the Book Fair in the four visits I made so far. I thought I’d write about the book haul at the Book Fair sometime after it is over.I am finding it difficult to write about finding so many books in just one post. I plan to do a couple of posts about the Book Fair hauls at leisure but most certainly before the end of the year.

Last Sunday it was full house, that is, there was everyone in the Gang of Four that scoured the pavements at Abids for good titles. After chai and a chat about global events and such things we set out for the real job that we came to Abids for. I had already been to the Book Fair by then and had bought more than a dozen books so I was really not inclined to buy any books at Abids. But even though I had bought a truck load of books the previous evening I cannot resist picking up a good title if I find one at Abids. So the first book I saw was ‘Charity’ by Len Deighton that had a pink cover and different from the edition I had at home. I really did not want to buy it but it was in a heap of books selling for just ten rupees so I bought it though what I was really looking for was ‘Hook’ and ‘Sinker’ in the ‘Hook, Line, and Sinker’ trilogy by Len Deighton.

The next book I found was ‘The French Connection’ by Robin Moore. I had seen this book the previous Sunday but hadn’t thought of buying it because I did not know much about it though the title sounded very familiar. On the cover it said that it was made into a movie also. This Sunday however I bought it. I got the book for forty rupees.

The next find was not my usual crime fiction, literary fiction or any of the kind of books I usually buy. It was a cook book that I picked up. I found ‘Indian Fast Food’ by Pushpesh Pant that had an attractive cover and seemed to be almost brand new. It was in quite good condition and the production was of a very high standard. I had read some of Pushpesh Pant’s columns in the newspapers more out of curiosity than any real interest in cooking. However, I must say that this urge to learn to cook is becoming stronger as I keep finding more such books. Anyway, I saw that the recipes mentioned inside the book seemed fairly easy and ended up buying the book. Incidentally, though the classy book was printed and bound in Singapore I got it for an Indian pavement price of only fifty rupees.