The Sunday Haul (on 2-9-18)

I do not seem to be falling short of luck at the Sunday book bazaar in Abids because last Sunday too I ended up with a good haul of six interesting titles.

Only the other Sunday I had picked up a copy of … by Amitabha Bagchi whose latest book- ‘Half the Night is Gone’ is being talked about as one of the finest novels in recent times. I had seen good enough copies of ‘Above Average’ by Amitabha Bagchi at Abids in the past but hadn’t bought it for some reason. But after reading about ‘Half the Night is Gone’ I have decided to read Bagchi’s books and begin from the first book. I have to find ‘The Householder’ now. I got ‘Above Average’ for only fifty rupees.

The next find was a chance find that I picked up after I saw the cover. It was a copy of ‘Headcount’ by Ingrid Noll who, it was on the cover, was considered as ‘Germany’s Queen of Crime’ by Observer. After such high praise I couldn’t resist buying it since I love to read crime fiction and want to find new writers I am not aware of. This title was in another lot of books selling for twenty rupees.

The Sunday before last I had seen a book in tattered condition without the covers at the front and at the back and the spine exposed. However, the title appeared interesting ‘Principles of Literary Critcism’ by I.A. Richards. The seller had asked for a hundred and fifty rupees that put me off. I wasn’t very interested in it because it seemed something very academic. Last Sunday I saw the book again and asked for the price. The seller was the same kid as before but this time he asked for only forty rupees. I decided to take though I am not sure I would find the time and the patience to go through it.

Sometimes you find treasure in the most unexpected places. There’s a pile of uninteresting books in another place in a lane at Abids that sell for twenty rupees. In the past I have found a couple of good titles when I looked carefully. Last Sunday I needn’t look so carefully because one title lying on top of the pile that caught my eye. It was a copy of ‘Ants’ by Gopinath Mohanty, a small and slender book. ‘Ants and Other Stories’ is a collection of nine short stories: Ants; The Somersault; Destiny; Two Heroes; Road Closed; Drowning; House; The Solution; Identity ranslated from the Odia by Sitakant Mahapatra. I looked inside and saw that the book was published in 1979 by Arani International, Kolkata and distributed by Rupa. Arani was a new name I haven’t heard before but the cover was something worth looking at- It was another collectible title that I got for just twenty bucks.

The last title I found at Abids was a copy of ‘The Brass Cupcake’ by John D. MacDonald that I later read online was his first novel. It was another book from the Books n More library that are still littering the pavements in their dozens. This book was in a pile of books selling for twenty rupees along with other titles.

The last find was not in Abids but in Chikkadpally. There was a pile of books stacked one on top of another that I decided to check out. Then I found a nice copy of ‘Voices in the City’ by Anita Desai with a beautiful original cover. It was an Orient Paperbacks edition published by Hind Pocket Books that looked like a collectible item. I got it for only thirty rupees.