The Sunday Haul (on 04/10/2020)

 

Last Sunday at Abids I realized how stupid I could be sometimes. The previous Sunday I had noticed a tall stack of titles with a seller. I had knelt on the ground and checked out the books one by one. I found titles by Julian Symons, Helen McInnes, Raymond Chandler, Kingsley Amis, Leslie Charteris, Allan Sillitoe- titles that I should have grabbed right away. But surprisingly, I did not feel like buying them and foolishly thought that I would find them the next Sunday i.e., last Sunday. So when I hurried to that seller praying that the books would still be there I was shocked when the seller told me they had all been sold!

I felt angry at myself, and in that state I went around Abids not buying books until a long time. Finally the disappointment wore off and I spotted my first title, a copy of ‘Passage to England’ by Nirad C Chaudhuri. I haven’t read anything by Nirad Chaudhuri so far and I am thinking of starting to read this book next.

At the next seller I picked up a copy of ‘The Chinese Assassin’ by Anthony Grey. The cover seemed attractive and promised to be a good read so I took it. I don’t know why but I seem to be coming across James M. Cain titles too often. Only a couple of weeks ago I had found a copy of ‘Double Indemnity’ at a store and last Sunday I came across another James M. Cain title- ‘Past All Dishonour’ by James M. Cain.

The last find was a nice copy of ‘Iris and Her Friends’ by John Bayley, Iris Murdoch’s husband. I had seen a copy earlier with another seller but he asked for an astronomical sum for it and so hadn’t bought it at that time. Now after a couple of months I have come across another copy that I bought at hundred rupees. It is a memoir of John Bayley about Iris Murdoch’s illness.