Friday Double Post- #2. The Sunday Haul (on 21-10-2018)

With the Dasara festival over and the shopping frenzy paused before the Diwali shopping frenzy begins again, the second hand booksellers were back at their usual places at Abids last Sunday. The first find of the day was a wonderful title. I spotted a nice copy of ‘Hot Days Long Nights; An Anthology of African Short Stories’ Edited by Nadezda Obradovic. It turned out to be a NBT publication. NBT books are generally cheaper but the price on this copy was rubbed out so I had no idea about the original price. I bought it for a hundred rupees which wasn’t much given that the copy I got was quite good. It had twenty six stories but the best thing about it was that it had a foreword by Chinua Achebe. I read the foreword where Achebe mentioned ‘People of the City’ by Cyprian Ekwensi that I had picked up at a bookstall at last year’s Hyderabad Literary Festival. However another title was also mentioned along with it and it was ‘Palm Wine Drunkard’ by Amos Tutuola which is one title I want to lay my hands on.

These are the stories in it: A Handful of Dates by Tayeb Salih; The Advance by Henri Lopes; Papa, Snake & I by Luis Bernardo Honwana; A Child in the Bush of Ghosts by Olympe Bhely-Quenum; It was Easter Sunday The Day I went to Netreg by Sindiwe Magona; The Brother by Charles Mungoshi; The Dignity of Begging by William (Bloke) Modisane; The Garden of Evil by William Saidi; Bossy by A.R. Gurnah; A Night Out by Tololwa marti Mollel; Hot Days, Long Nights by Nnadazie F. Inyama; Her Three Days by Sembene Ousmane; A Life in Detail by Mohammed Berrada; The Three-Piece Suit by Ali Deb; The Wicked Tongue by Mohammed Moulessehoul; Four Dimensions by I.N.C. Aniebo; Thought Tracks in the Snow by Dambudzo Marechera; Waiting for a Turn by Ken Lipenga; The Other City by Ibrahim Abdel Megid; God of Meme by Ndeley Mokoso; Africa Kills Her Sun by Ken Saro-Wiva; At the Time of the Jasmine by Alifa Rifat; The Last Battle by Ossie O. Enekwe; Civil War I-VII by Adewale Majaa-Pearce; The Point of No Return by Miriam M. Tlali; The Winner by Barbara Kiwenye. Of all these writers I have read about Charles Mungoshi, A.R. Gurnah, and Ken Saro-Wiwa only, sadly. But I am glad now I can read more of African writers.

Along with Dave Barry, Bill Bryson is another writer I enjoy reading. I have read all his books and also have copies of almost all his titles. Yet whenever I see a good copy of any book I have enjoyed reading I buy it with a vague intention to give to people who have similar tastes. This was the reason why I picked up a nice copy of ‘The Lost Continent’ by Bill Bryson though I already own a copy.

The last find was a cookbook I had seen listed somewhere as one of the ‘must have’ classic cookbook title. So when I spotted ‘The Complete Indian Cookbook’ by Mridula Baljekar I grabbed it right away. It was a beautiful hardcover copy that I got for just a hundred rupees.