The Sunday Haul

A long time back I hesitantly picked up Dirk Bogarde’s ‘An Orderly Man’ and after I read it, I realized that actors could be good writers as well. Later, when I came across ‘For the Time Being’ by him I did not hesitate before buying it. FRTB was a mix of articles, and book reviews which was where I read about Molly Keane’s ‘Loving and Giving’ which Bogarde selected as a book of the year along with one of Marquez’s title. Somehow I remembered the title but when I found it at Abids I did not buy it.

About six months ago I spotted ‘Loving and Giving’ by Molly Keane in a heap of books selling for twenty rupees at Abids. For some reason I did not buy it right away and decided I would pick it up the next Sunday because I was certain no one knew about this book. Not surprisingly, the next Sunday when I looked for it the book was not to be found. I felt like kicking myself for not picking it when I saw it first. Every Sunday I made it a point to look for it at the same spot where I first saw it but was disappointed. I thought someone who knew better than me must have bought it. But, I don’t consider myself lucky in matters of books just like that. I spotted it again last Sunday when it surfaced again in the same heap where I had seen it first. This time I did not hesitate and bought it the minute I saw it.

The second haul of last Sunday was another short story collection. It was in another heap of books selling for twenty rupees that I found Scott F Fitzgerald’s ‘Babylon Revisited and Other Stories’ It was almost a brand new copy and had the following stories: The Ice Palace, May Day, The Diamond as Big as the Ritz, Winter Dreams, Absolution, The Rich Boy, The Freshest Boy, Babylon Revisited, Crazy Sunday, and The Long Way Out.

The third book of the haul was a Len Deighton title- ‘An Expensive Place to Die’ that I couldn’t resist buying because it was brand new, the cover was different from the copies I had at home and besides it was just for twenty rupees. With these three books I came back home with that feeling one gets when one buys really good books.