If the previous Sunday at Abids it wasn’t a full house of the second hand booksellers then last Sunday it was a half-house with only a little more than half the sellers spreading out their books on the pavement. However it was more than enough for me. There weren’t many buyers around except for a few regulars like me. After weeks of being deprived of the joy of looking for books here, I felt like I was in heaven though it would be another couple of weeks before I become normal. I am buying books like there is no tomorrow. Looking at the way the Covid cases are rising and the rumour floating around who knows there could be another Lockdown which means another spell of deprivation. So I am making most of it and buying whatever looks interesting. Last Sunday I ended up buying seven wonderful titles.
Since finding a nice copy of ‘The Sorrow of War’ by Bao Ninh which was about the Vietnam war from the Vietnamese perspective I haven’t found anything from the SE Asian countries. I had found a book by Pramodeya Ananta Toer but nothing from Thailand or China. Last Sunday I found a book of short stories by a Chinese author and also a novel by a Thai writer. I found a copy of ‘Chestnuts and Other Stories’ by Xiao Qian published by Panda Books. It had twelve stories and I have no idea who Xiao Qian is.
The other book, the Thai novel was a copy of ‘The Path of the Tiger’ by Sila Khoamchai and was in beautiful condition with a lovely cover. I haven’t read anything from a Thai writer so I was quite excited finding this lovely book. I got these two books for just fifty rupees.
At another spot with another seller I saw a copy of ‘The Lighthouse’ by Alison Moore, and on the cover it was mentioned that the book was shortlisted for the 2012 Man Booker. I picked it up without a second thought. I got it for sixty rupees only.
Next I came to a heap of brand new books, all of them titles by well-known names selling three for two hundred rupees only. There were so many beautiful titles that I couldn’t decide which to buy though I would have preferred to buy all of them. But there were a couple of hundred books in that heap and I can’t afford to buy all of them and even if I bought them all there is no space at home to keep them. So I sifted through the piles carefully and picked up a nice copy of ‘Friend of My Youth’ by Amit Chaudhuri still in its plastic wrapping! It was brand, brand new and the price on the back cover said Rs 499.
Then the next find was a beautiful copy of ‘The Lost Estate’ by Henri Alain-Fournier with a stunning cover in blue and white. I had picked up a copy of this book but the title on it was ‘Le Grand Meaulnes’, and this was at Blossoms at Bangalore a few years ago. It was supposed to be a classic of French Literature and I am unable to locate my copy when I wanted to read it during the Lockdown.
I picked up this copy too because it was too beautiful to let go and added it to my growing haul. The third book was another beautiful copy of ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Love’ by Raymond Carver. It had seventeen stories in all. I was excited to find this book since I already have a copy of his ‘Fires’ and also ‘Where I am Calling From’ that I had found at the Hyderabad Book Fair earlier this year, and had been looking for since a long time. . So these were the three books I got for two hundred rupees.
On the way home I stopped at one of the sellers at Chikkadpally and spotted a copy of ‘Collected Poems: 1957-1987’ by Dom Moraes with a beautiful illustration on the cover. I did not even look inside to see how many poems were there but bought it right away and paid fifty rupees for it. Later after I got home I counted the poems in it. There were 101 poems in it divided into several sections.
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