The Sunday Haul (on 18/10/2020)

The wet spell in Hyderabad seemed never ending. It’s been raining and raining all the time since the past couple of weeks with short spells of dry weather. It did not rain in the morning last Sunday when I started for Abids.

In my early life I had nearly become a journalist. I still feel I would have made a good journalist though how I came to that conclusion I do not know. I like to read accounts by journalists of their trips, assignments, and experiences. I do not remember now how many such books by journalists I have but I do not fail to pick up such books whenever I come across them. Last Sunday at Abids I spotted a thick tome, and it was a copy of ‘The Ninety Nine Names of God’ by Judith Miller.

Since childhood I’ve tried to follow world events, and only now I am able to make sense of somethings that have been going on since then. However, the wars in the Middle East were something I didn’t quite understand so when I saw that ‘The Ninety Nine Names of God’ by Judith Miller was about the Middle East I felt excited that I had found something that would clear my confusion. It was a lengthy book, all of … pages and was thicker than the average brick. Nevertheless I bought it. I had to pay two hundred rupees for it but it appeared worth every rupee.

I remember seeing a lot about ‘Circe’ by Madeline Miller sometime back. However I forgot about the book and the hype around it until I came across a copy at Abids. I picked it up to take a closer look. It was an almost brand new copy and there were more than a dozen pages of blurbs at the front of the book. I decided to buy it and got it for a hundred rupees. I don’t know when I would find the time to read it but I am glad I took it.

I wasn’t at all surprised to see that the sellers put ‘Each book Rs 10’ written on pieces of cardboard that they places before heaps of books during the pandemic. There were two heaps with Rs 20 and Rs 30 boards. In the heap selling for thirty rupees I spotted a copy of ‘The Cape Cod Lighter’ by John O’Hara. I picked it up and saw that it was a collection of twenty three of his short stories: Appearances, The Bucket of Blood; the Butterfly; Claude Emerson, Reporter; The Engineer; The Father; The First Day; Jurge Dulrumple; Justice; The Lesson; Money; The Nothing Machine; Pat Collins; The Professors; A Short Walk from the Station; Sunday Morning; The Sun-Dodgers; Things You Really Want; Two Turtledoves; Winter Dance; The Women of Madison Avenue; You Don’t Remember Me; Your Fah Neefah Neeface.

Then in the next heap of books I saw a copy of ‘The Power and the Glory’ Graham Greene that I picked up not because I was getting it cheap but it is Graham Greene and I cannot resist anything by him.