A few sharp showers in the evening sometime during the middle of last week helped a lot in bringing down the temperature for a couple of days. As a result of this last Sunday was not as hot it was the previous Sunday when the temperature had almost touched 42 degrees C. Though it wasn’t exactly pleasant on Sunday morning it wasn’t uncomfortably hot. This plus the fact that I was friendless helped me focus on the titles of books heaped on the pavements at Abids last Sunday. All this resulted in a wonderful four book haul that filled me with the joy that only people who love books feel on finding good books.
It was only after I had the chai all alone at our regular Irani café that I found the first good title of the day. I spotted a nice copy of ‘Murder in the Kitchen’ by Alice B Toklas and picked it up for a closer look because the name Alice B Toklas rang a bell in my mind. ‘Murder in the Kitchen’ is described as a memoir-turned-cookbook at the back and since it was a combination (memoir + cookbook) I couldn’t resist buying it. Inside i read that Toklas had been a sort of companion to Gertrude Stein, and both hosted a salon that attracted Hemingway, Paul Bowles, Scott F Fitzgerald, Picasso, Matisse etc. Besides, the seller asked for only thirty rupees for this slim volume.
A very long time back I had picked up a book by Sandor Marai, the Hungarian novelist I had read about in J.M. Coetzee’s book of essays. It was in ‘Inner Workings- Essays 2000-2005’ that I had first read about Sandor Marai and subsequently found ‘Conversations in Bolzano’ after missing buying it the first time I saw it. At the bunch of sellers near the Head Post Office in Abids I spotted a copy of ‘Embers’ by Sandor Marai, the same book Coetzee had written about in detail. The translator was Carol Brown Janeway. I was careful not to show my excitement at finding it because the sellers could make it out and quote a high price. As expected he quoted the astronomical price of a hundred and eighty rupees. I asked for eighty rupees and walked away as if I was not very interested in the book. The gambit paid off since the seller called me and gave it at my price.
Not the last find of the day but the last find at Abids was a title I saw with the seller near Hollywood shoes. It was a beautiful copy of ‘The Long March’ by William Styron that I spotted moments before I had decided to call it a day at Abids and was about to get on my bike. It was only eighty eight pages long but I paid eighty rupees for it because I WANTED it. I have read Styron’s memoir of depression, ‘Darkness Visible’ and also a book of essays ‘This Quiet Dust and Other Writings’ but haven’t yet read his most famous work, ‘Sophie’s Choice’ that I plan to read one of these days. With three wonderful titles in the bag I started off for home thinking I had a great haul until I reached Chikkadpally. There I came across the find of the day.
At a seller at Chikkadpally I spotted a few old books and decided to take a closer look since it was here that I found some old Orient Paperbacks titles with glorious covers. I spotted a nice copy of ‘The Colossus of Maroussi’ by Henry Miller that appeared to have been published long back. I checked inside and found that it was originally published in 1941 and the copy I had was a 1963 reprint. I felt unusually happy finding this title and was quite surprised when the seller asked for only twenty five rupees for this wonderful book. Later at home I read inside and read that Henry Miller’s original intention was to write just one big book, ‘The Story of My Misfortunes.’ Whatever, there’s one book by him I had picked up long back- The Books in My Life- that I thought was a wonderful book. But when I opened it I realized three fourths of the book was missing! I hadn’t checked the book properly before buying it, a basic mistake I make sometimes in my excitement at finding a good title.
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