The Sunday Haul (on 07-10-2018)

Though the festival season was just around the corner which means that the second hand book sellers at Abids have to move on to other spots because the regular shops remain open for the festive shoppers last Sunday the scene was different. Only one store, the Hollywood Shoes, was open and the sellers who usually spread out the books on the space before this store moved out other sellers were more or less at their usual spots because not many stores were open.

This was a title I had seen earlier but somehow hadn’t thought of buying it. Last Sunday I spotted another copy and picked up ‘Yayati’ by VS Khandekar after reading on the cover that he had won the Jnanpith Award. The copy I found appeared like it was one of the earlier editions so that was another reason I picked it up apart from wanting to read it.

The ‘Essential Andhra Cookbook’ by Bilkees Latif was a book I had earlier missed buying after I first spotted it and thought it would be around. But when I went the next time it was gone. But last Sunday it turned up again and this time I did not want to take any chances and bought it though the seller asked a bomb for it. I paid a hundred rupees for it and guess what a couple of days later I spotted another copy with the seller who sits near the Telephone Bhavan in Saifabad on all days.

The next find happened to be an interesting cookbook- ‘Indian Vegetarian Delights’ by Malini Bisen. It is supposed to contain recipes that avoid onion and the reason is that the book was published during the years when onion supply was hit and they sold at very high prices. It was sometime in the nineties and the inside page says the same.

A couple of years back I had found a copy of ‘Islands of the Marigold Sun’ by Suresh Vaidya but the cover was missing. However I bought it but haven’t read it yet. Last Sunday I found another copy of the same title but with the cover. I bought it for just fifteen rupees along with another book which was a nice copy of ‘Just a Matter of Mistresses’ by Mayah Balse. I am familiar with the name because I keep seeing copies of ‘The Singer’ by her. Next time I see it I will buy it because the books by Mayah Balse seemed to have been published sometime in the 60’s and I love books published during those years.

The last find was a nice copy of ‘In the Skin of a Lion’ by Michael Ondaatje that I found at Chikkadpally. I got it for fifty rupees and I was glad I found another title by Ondaatje.