The most impatient person in the world last Thursday was yours truly. Last Thursday the 31st Hyderabad National Book Fair was going to begin in the evening and all day since waking up I was feeling restless for it to be evening. I think I broke some speed records as well as some traffic rules last Thursday rushing from my office at Jubilee Hills to NTR Stadium in a little more than half hour, which is half the time I take to reach home. On Thursday I wouldn’t have stopped for anything, not even for a free biryani. By the time I parked the bike, bought a ticket and rushed in there was a huge crowd inside like it was the last day of the book fair and they were offering free books to all visitors. Every year the crowd seems to be growing bigger and bigger. I rushed straight to the stalls of the second hand booksellers and ended up with a haul of five books.
The first find was in a stall which had a separate table where the offer was of ‘three books for 100 rupees. ‘I saw Hitch 22’ by Christopher Hitchens and grabbed it. The next find was ‘Mr Naipaul’s Round Trip and Other Essays’ by TGA Vaidyanathan which I picked up after I saw that one of the essays inside was ‘Memoirs of a Bibliophile’ and that alone was worth buying the book for. There was another book to make up for three books so after a search I decided to buy ‘The Best of Betjeman’ Selected by John Guest, which was a collection of poetry, prose and also a television script. I’ve read about John Betjeman but haven’t found anything by him so coming across this book was a lucky thing.
I never got to read ‘The Broom of the System’ by David Foster Wallace that I had found somewhere because a good friend of mine asked for it. I gave it to her because though we have never met I consider a really good friend. She is the sort of good friend who always gives me books as gifts for my birthday. I saw a good copy of ‘A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again’ by David Foster Wallace, a collection of just seven essays that I bought along with another book for two hundred and fifty rupees. Somehow this year the sellers are not selling their books cheap and there isn’t the usual 10% discount this year which is adding to the misery of letting some books go because you cannot afford to buy them.
Sometime ago I found a copy of ‘They Came Like Swallows’ by William Maxwell that I had picked up on a hunch. I haven’t read it yet. I had also found a nice copy of 'Time Will Darken It' that I haven't yet read either. But at the book fair another book I found was a nice copy of ‘So Long, See You Tomorrow’ by William Maxwell again. This title is chosen by Ann Patchett (who won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2002) as a book that she would pass on to the next generation. In the introduction to the book Ann Patchett also writes about reading ‘They Came Like Swallows’ also. I felt glad that I now have both titles to read since she praises William Maxwell very highly calling him a genius. By the way, I haven’t read anything by Ann Patchett but plan to do so after reading this wonderful introduction.
By the time I had looked into only a handful of second hand book stalls it was closing time. There were still many I have to check out so I left feeling disappointed. I decided to make another visit the following day.
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