Barely had three days passed since returning from Kolkata with a haul of five books at College Street and I was once again browsing in Abids on Sunday for more books. I bought four books from a seller who keeps aside titles he thinks I might like. Though they weren’t something I really wanted to buy and read I did not have the heart to tell him because he is such a nice person. I ended up buying all these books from him paying him more than he asked because it was his first sale of the day and I did not want to bargain with him.
The first title in the lot he had kept aside was a copy of ‘The Price of a Wife’ by G.D. Khosla that appeared quite interesting for it was by a little known (at least to me) Indian writer and that the book was a collection of 22 short stories. Of late I had begun to adding books by Indian authors published in the late fifties and sixties to my growing collection of such books. This was the second GD Khosla title I have with me now after ‘A Way of Loving’ that I found recently and about which I have yet to write here.
The next book in the lot of books the seller had kept aside was one which I would never find the time to read in this lifetime because of its length. It was an almost new copy of ‘Chaplin- His Life and Art’ by David Robinson which is almost nine hundred pages long. To think I got this book for just fifty rupees just amazes me.
Another interesting title in the lot was a nice copy of ‘Collected Essays’ by Aldous Huxley. This has about forty five essays on various subjects under different sections, such as Travel which includes a piece on Jaipur, Psychology, Music, Painting, History, and so on.
The last title was a beautiful copy of ‘Fasting Feasting’ by Anita Desai that I almost did not take. At the last minute I added this book to the Sunday haul. With this book the total number of books I’ve bought this year is an astounding 230. There’s still December left, and the Hyderabad Book Fair that I am told is from 15th December to 25th December. By the end of the year I would have bought more than 250 books.
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