The Sunday Haul (on 01-04-2018)

It was a bountiful harvest of five wonderful titles at Abids last Sunday. Though there was a forecast of a cloudy sky in Hyderabad it wasn’t so when I landed up at Abids in the morning. It was too warm for comfort and it looked like it would get hotter later in the day. I am used to coming in the morning though it would have been sensible to come in the evening. Coming in the evening would mean missing out on good titles that would have been picked up by others.

The first find was a beautiful copy of ‘Gangs of Wasseypur- The Making of a Modern Classic’ by Jigna Kothari and Supriya Madamgarli. I had watched ‘Gangs of Wasseypur-II’ and had regretted not watching ‘Gangs of Wasseypur-I.’ I don’t think I will ever get to watch it in the future but I was glad I found this title.

The next find was in a heap of books selling for only ten rupees. My eyes skimmed through the titles of the books and fell on a tattered book. It was an old copy of ‘The Cat and Shakespeare’ by Raja Rao. It was a 1971 Orient Paperback edition and though the spine was exposed the pages were all inside and held together somehow.

‘After I had read ‘The Outsider’ by Albert Camus I was drawn to his writing and wanted to read more of him. I couldn’t find many titles by Camus and was on the lookout. Last Sunday on the pavement at Abids I spotted a copy of ‘Albert Camus: Selected Essays and Notebooks’ Edited and Translated by Philip Thody. The Introduction says ‘that the essays and others texts published in this volume are not primarily concerned with Camus’s philosophical or political ideas. They are intended to give a portrait of Camus the writer and literarcy critic, as well as Camus the individual.’ The book is divided into four Parts containing 18essays in Part I called ‘Lyrical Essays’ and seven essays in Part Two called ‘Critical Essays’ and the remaining two parts (Part Three and Four) are about how he wrote his books and extracts from his notebooks. This was exactly the kind of book I wanted to read so picked it up for just fifty rupees.

Near the Head Post Office from among the hundreds of books spread out on the road I managed to spot the copy of ‘Granta- Issue No 129-Fate’ that looked almost new. I picked it up mainly for Kent Haruf’s essay titled ‘The Making of a Writer’ and ‘Key Stroke’ by Will Self that was about JG Ballard’s typewriter.

Earlier while Uma was picking up books for his niece I spotted a copy of ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’ Judi Barett, illustrated by Ron Barett that looked interesting and bought it. It was in a heap of children’s books selling for twenty rupees. I had come across the name often and had wondered what it could be. I was not aware that it was the title of a children’s books.