The Recent Hauls

There have been no posts here on this blog since the past couple of weeks because I was involved in conducting a training course for senior officers at our Institute and then I myself underwent a training course at New Delhi soon after. It left me with no time to write about all the books I had picked up in the meantime.

The Birthday Gift
Before I left for New Delhi, in fact on the day I was leaving Hyderabad I got a book as a birthday gift from a friend in Mumbai who had asked to choose a title I wanted to read. I received a new copy of ‘Milk Teeth’ by Amrita Mahale. It was a hardcover copy and I left it at home because I planned to read it sometime in the future.

The Haul at Delhi
During my previous visit to New Delhi in November I had been to Jackson Books in Pahargunj and picked up four titles. This time I again went there and managed to find three wonderful titles. I found a nice copy of ‘Milkman’ by Anna Burns that I did not expect to find so soon. Then I saw ‘The Big Knockover’ by Dashiell Hammett that I added to the haul. The last find was a beautiful copy of ‘Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life’ by Karen Armstrong. I had picked up ‘Through the Narrow Gate’ by Karen Armstrong some time ago and after reading it had found a copy of ‘The Spiral Staircase’ that I am yet to read. Impressed by ‘Through the Narrow Gate’ I picked up ‘Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life’ that I hope to read soon.

One of the days I was in New Delhi I had read a tweet about a book related event in ‘Oxford Book Store’ in Connaught Place. Since Connaught Place was within walking distance of YMCA where we were put up I dropped into listen to the conversation between Ambarish Satwik and Mirza Waheed about the latter’s ‘Tell Her Everything.’ It was interesting enough though I had to hurry away for a dinner appointment but not before picking up a copy of ‘Kashi Ki Assi’ by Kashinath Singh.

The Sunday Haul

I was back home at Hyderabad on Friday night and a day after it was Sunday which meant book hunting in Abids. I had been looking for a copy of ‘YOUNGUNCLE COMES TO TOWN’ by Vandana Singh that I wanted to present to someone in my office but I couldn’t find it then. The person is no longer coming to the office so there was really no need for me to buy it when I saw it last Sunday at Abids. But I bought it hoping I’d meet that person again sometime soon. Another reason was that I was getting this copy for just ten rupees.

A long time back in 2013 I had picked up a title by Janwillem van de Wetering (Tumbleweed) that I discovered to my delight was a crackling read. Soon afterwards I happened to find ‘The Japanese Corpse’ by the same writer. Though I wanted to read more titles by van de Wetering I couldn’t find any subsequently. However last Sunday I spotted ‘Outsider in Amsterdam’ by Janwillem van de Wetering. I got it for eighty rupees and I felt glad I found another good crime title.

Again a long time back I had discovered another wonderful writer- Lisa St Aubin de Teran. The first title I had found was ‘The Last Train to Milan’ and soon after I found ‘Keepers of the House’ and a couple of years later I found ‘Memory Maps,’ Last Sunday in a heap of books selling for only twenty rupees I saw a copy of ‘Joanna’ by Lisa St Aubin de Teran that I grabbed right away. Somehow I had failed to notice a copy of ‘Oxford’ by Jan Morris that was in the same heap. I picked up this copy after Uma pointed it out to me on the way back.
All of them finds add up to nine books so far this month.