The Sunday Haul (on 10-12-2017)

The year is drawing to a close and there are three more Sundays left. The haul of books that I’ve made this year from my visits to Abids, to second hand bookstores and also gifts from friends has added to a staggering hundred and seventy seven books. If I buy the books at my usual average of three books every Sunday then the total haul would cross 190 that is excluding the number of books that I buy at the Hyderabad Book Fair that is usually held in December. I heard that this year the Book Fair will not be held in December but is going to be held from the 18th of next January. In which case, my haul of books in 2017 is likely to be less than 200.

Last Sunday I was Abids as usual to look for books on the pavements. I ended up finding three books in all, two cookbooks and a crime fiction title. I’ve realized that British are terribly good at crime fiction after I’ve read Ted Lewis and Jake Arnott. There was another writer I cannot recollect now but I am always on the lookout for newer writers of crime fiction. I spotted a new book that seemed to stand out and I couldn’t resist picking it up to take a better look. It was ‘naked to the hangman’ by Andrew Taylor and once I read the blurb by The Sunday Times on the back cover saying it was ‘Crime at its best’ I decided to buy it.

Next I found ‘Secret Recipes from Indian Homes’ by Femina that looked like an ancient magazine. But it was published only in 1990 as it says on the cover- Vimla Patil presents The Best Recipes of 1990. I got it for thirty rupees. Later I bought another interesting cookbook. This was the ‘Chuk-Chuk Cookbook’ brought out by the SCRWO (South Central Railways Women’s Organisation). It appeared a quaint cookbook which was one reason I bought it.