The Sunday Haul (on 05-08-2018)

It was another ‘solo’ Sunday for me at Abids last Sunday when I had no friends by my side while foraging through the piles of books on the pavements. Being alone meant I could take my own time browsing and trying to focus on spotting titles that looked good. In the couple of hours I was at Abids I ended up with a nice haul of five interesting titles.

The first title I found was one I had read about a long time ago. It was a copy of ‘And Some Take a Lover’ by Dina Mehta that I spotted lying on the pavement among other titles. It is a Rupa title published in 1992. The title comes from a poem ‘Don Juan’ Canto II by Lord Byron. The book runs into more than three hundred pages and I got it for just fifty rupees.

In my notebook I had jotted down a few titles of poetry by Denis Johnson after I read about him somewhere. I forgot to write down where I had come across Denis Johnson’s name but when I saw it on the cover of a book I saw with a seller at Abids I picked it up. It was a nice copy of ‘Already Dead’ by Denis Johnson, and it was a fiction title. I hesitated a bit before buying it but ultimately bought it for thirty rupees.

A few minutes later at another seller I saw a copy of ‘Indian Recipes’ by Premila Lal. I think I have a book by Premila Lal that I had picked up recently but the cookbook I saw looked attractive so I couldn’t resist buying it. I got it for eighty rupees.

The next find was by someone I had never heard before but turned out to a New Zealander who lived in India and was a newspaper correspondent. When I saw the cover of ‘A Frog in My Soup’ by Harry Miller I was intrigued by the picture of an Indian boy with three Slender Lori sitting on his head. Even more interesting was an inscription by someone called Suchi to Akhilee on one of the front pages. The book did not come cheap though. I almost decided not to buy it but the seller was ready to give it to me at the rate I quoted, a fourth of what he had asked.

The last find was a book I had spotted sometime two Sundays ago but hadn’t bought because I have already a copy of it and have also read the book. It was a good copy of ‘Paro’ by Namita Gokhale and I decided to buy it because I had enjoyed reading it and thought there would be someone I could give it to. I got the book for just thirty rupees.