The Haul at the Hyderabad Book Fair-1

 

The day I was waiting for eagerly for almost two years finally dawned on the 18^th of December when the 34^thHyderabad National Book Fair opened. Though I keep buying books all through the year, at Abids on Sundays and in bookstores, there’s something thrilling to look for books in the stalls at the Book Fair. I’ve been coming to the Hyderabad Book Fair for nearly three decades right from the year it began and not missing a year. Usually I end up buying a lot of books at the Book Fair and almost all of them second hand books. 

This year too it was no different as I ended up buying several books in all in the numerous visits I made to the Hyderabad Book Fair that was quite conveniently not very far from where I live. 

 

Day 1

As is my wont I landed up at the venue of the Hyderabad Book Fair on the first day hours after it was inaugurated.  I only looked in the second hand book stalls, most of them put up by the sellers at Abids. There were only a few, not more than five, second hand book sellers from other places. However I ended up buying four good titles on the first day itself and spotted many good titles that I hoped to buy in the subsequent visits I planned to make. 

 

Not so long back I had picked up a title by an author with an intriguing name. It was a nice copy of ‘Footsteps' by Pramoedya Ananta Toer. It was the second title in a quartet, and I bought it knowing it was near to impossible finding the other three titles in the quartet, after reading on the cover that Toer was an Indonesian writer with quite a reputation. The first title I saw at the book fair was a copy of ‘The Mute’s Soliloquy’ by Pramoedya Ananta Toer. I was thrilled to discover that it was a memoir as I love to read writers’ memoirs. 

 

The next find too turned out to be a memoir of a famous writer. It was a copy of ‘Memoirs’ by Kingsley Amis. Coincidentally, I have his famous writer son’s memoir too titled ‘Experience’ that I had found a few years ago in a second hand bookstore in Hyderabad. I have read it but I don’t know when I will find the time to read Kingsley Amis’ memoir. 

 

I haven’t read anything by Yukio Mishima though I have heard and read a lot about him. I hadn’t been able to find titles by this author until last week when I found a copy of ‘The Temple of the Golden Pavilion’ by Yukio Mishima in a stall run by a person from New Delhi. I got it for just hundred rupees. 

I hadn’t even covered three stalls in the fair and it was already close to closing time. There were several second hand book stalls I had to check out and I was running out of time. However I planned to visit almost every day and check out all the stalls selling second hand books in the next eleven days that the Hyderabad Book Fair would be held. I had time to check out one last stall and it was where I found the next title. I saw a beautiful copy of ‘And Yet…Essays’ by Christopher Hitchens that I grabbed right away. 

As for the prices of  the books I felt they were a bit higher but since the Book Fair didn't happen last year I guess it is reasonable for the sellers to recoup their losses during the pandemic. I have nothing to complain.

Haul on the second day's visit will be in the next post soon.

Happy New Year. 

The Sunday Haul (12-12-2021)

 I feel unreasonably guilty when the latest book by an author whose bestselling first book I haven’t yet read comes out. I had this feeling last Sunday at Abids when I came across ‘This Land is Our Land’ by Suketu Mehta whose ‘Maximum City’ a book about Bombay (now Mumbai) became the book about the city of Bombay. Actually I had found a copy but after I read a few pages I realized it was a pirated edition and threw it away. Since then I haven’t come across another good copy so it went unread. 

 I found the copy of ‘This Land is Our Land’ by Suketu Mehta with a seller who was also selling other titles @ of 3 titles for Rs 200. But this hardcover copy I got for two hundred rupees which I think is quite reasonable considering the good condition it was in. This was the only title that I found on Sunday at Abids. However I was pleased that I found a wonderful book that I had not expected to find at Abids. 

 

The 34^th Hyderabad National Book Fair is only a day away and I am eagerly waiting to go there on Saturday as soon as it is thrown open. I don’t know how many books I will end up buying but it is going to be a large number considering the fact that the book fair wasn’t held last year. 

The Sunday Haul (on 05-12-2021)

At last came the news that I had been eagerly and anxiously waiting for since the last one year. The Hyderabad Book Fair was to start from December 18 and end ten days later on the 27^th. I know I would be picking up at least a dozen books in the almost daily visits I planned to make to the Book Fair over its duration. So even as I waited anxiously for December 18^th and the many delights that would follow I couldn’t help but make another bountiful haul on my weekly visit to the second hand book market at Abids last Sunday.

There’s a seller at Abids who regularly stocks copies of only new titles that are in almost new condition. A few of them he sells at different but higher prices (but lesser than the original price on the sticker) but a large number of titles he heaps in piles that he sells for Rs 50 or Rs 100 each. Last Sunday in his pile of Rs 50 books I spotted a beautiful copy of ‘The Testament of Mary’ by Colm Toibin. When I read on the cover that it was shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize I decided to take it.

When I reached the GPO at Abids with Grand Hotel behind it I realized it had been a long time since I tasted bun-maska. After having the bun-maska amidst the noise and din of a busy Irani café, I spotted a book with an eye-catching cover with a seller a few steps away from Grand Hotel. I picked it up and saw that it was a beautiful copy of  ‘Across the Chicken Neck: Travels in Northeast India’ by Nandita Haksar. It was about author’s travels in the North East states where I had been only twice in my life- once to Nagaland to attend a workshop in Kohima. It was here that I had the rare opportunity of shaking hands with the Chief Minister of a state. A year later I was in Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh to attend another workshop. I went on a trip to Ziro valley that seemed too beautiful to believe. It was an unforgettable experience. 

My next find was in another pile of Rs 50 books with another seller in front of the Bata store. I saw a small sized book- ‘The Painter of Modern Life’ by Charles Baudelaire and added it to my haul without a second thought. 

On the way home I stopped at the first of the four sellers at Chikkadpally to take a look. The books were laid out in such a manner that only the spines faced up. But even they were arranged in a haphazard manner making it difficult to read the titles on the spine. Anyway turning my head this way and that way I managed to spot a title that I had not expected to find- ‘Our Non-Veg Cow and Other Stories’ by Mahasweta Devi translated by Paramita Banerjee, with an introduction by Nabaneeta Dev Sen. Seagull Books is the publisher of this wonderful collection of stories. 

It has the following ten stories:

Those Boys; Nyadosh, the Incredible Cow; Not a Cock and Bull Story; Phalgu’s Story; Phalgu and the Cheetah-Man; The Seven Ghosts; Khudey the Dacoit; Shivaji’s Horse; All Alone; and Chittu. 

The Sunday and Other Hauls

 

The Sunday Haul (on 28-11-2021)

 Though it was a cloudy day last Sunday but for me it was filled with a lot of brightness as I managed to find half a dozen wonderful titles on the pavements of Abids.

I have read all the books by Arun Joshi except ‘The Survivors’ that I have not been able to find so far. Not only reading all the Arun Joshi titles I’ve picked up every copy of all his novels that I have come across so far. I have multiple copies of ‘The Foreigner’, ‘The Apprentice’, ‘The Strange Case of Billy Biswas’, ‘The City and the River’ and ‘The Last Labyrinth’ on my bookshelves. Last Sunday at Abids I  was pleasantly surprised when I came across a nice copy of ‘The Foreigner’ by Arun Joshi that I instantly picked up. ‘The Foreigner’ was the first Arun Joshi title I had read and I became an instant fan of his writing.

A few years ago I had found a collection of short stories by Vaikkom Muhammad Basheer, an old tattered copy that I cherished. I was floored by Basheer’s range of themes and his writing. After that I did not come across any other Basheer title and last Sunday at last I saw a beautiful Katha India Library edition titled ‘Basheer Fictions’ edited by Vanajam Ravindran.  It is a collection of twelve stories translated from the original Malayalam into English by various translators including Geeta Dharmarajan.

The next find was another collection of short stories. I spotted a copy of ‘Things Not Seen’ by Lynna Williams in a heap of books selling for fifty rupees each. I decided to buy it when I noticed inside that it was published by Back Bay Books imprint of Little, Brown and Company. It has nine stories.

 Sometime back I had found a title by Don DeLillo and had not found the time to read it so far. Last Sunday I spotted a nice copy of ‘Underworld’ by Don DeLillo that was of a forbidding thickness. I hesitated a long time before finally deciding to buy it. However I have no idea when I would begin to read it.

I come across the name Roberto Calasso quite frequently on Twitter and I had no idea who he was until I found a copy of ‘The Unnamable Present’ by Roberto Calasso at Abids last Sunday. It was a hardcover copy with a slightly damaged jacket but otherwise in quite a good condition. It was a non-fiction title so I bought it. I got it for just a hundred rupees.

With the same buyer I also bought a copy of ‘The Way of the Strangers’ by Graeme Wood, a paperback title. I decided to buy it after I read on the back cover that Graeme Wood is a national correspondent for The Atlantic. This title was another nice find in the haul on Sunday.

 A WhatsApp Sale Haul

This was one title I wanted to read since long. At last I came across it when a seller on WA put it for sale. I immediately claimed it and luckily I got it since I was the only one who claimed it. It was a nice copy of ‘Zindaginama’ by Krishna Sobti that I received in the post a few days back. I was thrilled to see it was in a good condition. I am raring to read it but my Hindi is rusty and it would take me a couple of months to finish reading it. But I am going to read it no matter what.

The other title I claimed in the same sale was ‘The Man with the Golden Arm’ by Nelson Algren that I had read about somewhere as a book not to be missed. It is more than three hundred pages long and I wish I could find the time to finish reading the book in one sitting.

The Sunday Haul (on 14-11-2021)

Though the Diwali shopping season is long past the regular stores in Abids that normally close on Sunday remained open last Sunday. Much later I came to know that the marriage season has begun with hundreds of marriages to be performed in the coming weeks. However, the second hand book sellers of Abids were around with their books on the pavements. Unlike the past few Sundays when I returned with hauls of more than a couple of books last Sunday I found only one good title. It was one I had seen the previous Sunday but had not bought it. 

 

In the late eighties and nineties I was an avid reader of weekly newsmagazines such as Sunday, India Today etc. Outlook wasn’t yet born so India Today ruled the roost. There was one particular journalist whose stories I used to read with great interest. It was Anita Pratap who dared to go into areas not many Indian journalists at that time went. After a few years she seemed to disappear and I had actually wondered where she was. Last Sunday I came across a nice copy of ‘Island of Blood’ by Anita Pratap that I had seen the previous Sunday but somehow had forgotten to buy. When I saw it again last Sunday I immediately grabbed it. 

 

As if the books I buy at Abids every Sunday and sometimes in bookstores is not enough I have also begun to buy books in sales held by some booksellers on their WhatsApp groups. These sales happen fairly regularly, at the rate of once every week and I am in three such groups.  Sometime last week in two such sales by two different sellers I managed to claim two nice titles before anyone did. 

 

Along with Vaikkom Mohammed Basheer MT Vasudevan Nair is one writer in Malayalam that I love to read all that they’ve written. Of course in English translation. When I saw the copy of ‘Varanasi’ by MT Vasudevan Nair on the seller’s group I thought it was a book on Varanasi. I love to read accounts of places and journeys by well-known writers so I was glad when I claimed the book and got it. But when I saw it after getting it in the mail I realized that it is a novel. I was a wee bit disappointed but anything by MT Vasudevan Nair is bound to be good, fiction or non-fiction. 

 

It was with a belated feeling of regret at having missed picking up something really good that I found a copy of ‘Monkey Grip’ by Helen Garner about a decade ago in 2012. After having seen the book for a couple of Sundays, and coming back to it again after a gap of a few weeks I finally had the sense to buy it. It turned out to be a wise decision for ‘Monkey Grip’ was a novel that haunted me for a long time. A couple of years ago ( 2018) I found another Helen Garner book at the Sunday book market that was in its last days in Darya Ganj in Delhi. It was a hardcover copy of ‘Everywhere I Look, a book of her non-fiction. 

 

I claimed ‘The Spare Room’ by Helen Garner the minute the seller opened the group for claims. Luckily for me no one seems to have heard of Helen Garner because other than I no one claimed it. 

The Sunday Haul (on 07-11-2021)

 It was one of the best hauls of the year that I landed last Sunday at Abids with a couple of titles I have not heard of and also authors I haven’t read about anywhere. Once again I was amazed at the kind of gems one finds at the second hand book market at Abids. I felt that I am extremely fortunate to live in Hyderabad where every Sunday I can visit to Abids and pick up gems to fill my bookshelves. 

 

The first title I spotted at Abids was a copy of ‘With Two Presidents’ by Major CL Datta, an aide-de-Camp to Dr. Rajendra Prasad and Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan who were the first two Presidents of India. I usually avoid reading such accounts since it is nothing more than ‘I saw’ and ‘I went’ and such stuff which is usually boring. But after I flipped through the pages and read a few paragraphs at random I thought it sounded interesting and so picked up the book. 

 

I love to read African literature. Ever since I read ‘Things Fall Apart’ by Chinua Achebe I have developed this great desire to read everything written by African writers and also everything written about Africa. Though I have managed to find many such titles and read a few essays about African literature and writers I have never heard of Es’kia Mphahlele. Maybe because I haven’t read enough to know about him. Anyway last Sunday I spotted a book with a splendid cover which turned out to be a beautiful copy of ‘Down Second Avenue’ by Es’kia Mphahlele. It was a Penguin title and I knew I would buy it no matter what the prize was when I saw on the cover that inside was a Foreword by Ngugi Wa Thiong’O, another writer I live very much. I got this book for a hundred and twenty rupees. 

 

I had been seeing this copy of ‘Purity’ by Jonathan Franzen at Abids since a couple of months but did not feel like buying it because of its length. The book runs into 563 pages and I wondered if I would get the time to read such a lengthy book since many books of that length that I had picked up earlier are still sitting unread on my bookshelf. However last Sunday I decided to buy it after I found that the seller was ready to sell it to me for just fifty rupees. 

 

A couple of day back I finished reading ‘The Big Bookshelf’ by Sunil Sethi, the last title in a handful of books on books and reading by Indian writers that I had managed to collect. ‘The Groaning Shelf’ by Pradeep Sebastian, ‘Would You Like Some Bread with that Book’ by Veena Venugopal, ‘The Girl Who Ate Books’ by Nilanjana Roy, ‘Bombay, London, New York’ by Amitava Kumar, and Navtej Sarna’s ‘Second Thoughts’ and ‘Bookless in Baghdad’ by Shashi Tharoor were the titles. Just when I thought that I had read them all and did not expect there would be any more such titles I got a pleasant shock when I spotted another title at Abids last Sunday. I saw a copy of ‘50 Writers 50 Books-The Best of Indian Fiction’ edited by Pradeep Sebastian and Chandra Siddan nestled in an untidy pile of books laid out on the pavement. I was surprised to find it since I had not heard of this wonderful title before. It was a treasure, I thought, since there were fifty individual essays about fifty titles that the essayists thought were outstanding. 

 

My collection of travel titles by Indian writers is slowly growing with new titles getting added quite frequently. A couple of Sundays ago I had found two titles and last Sunday I found another title that has become a bestseller. I had been thinking of buying a new copy of ‘Truck De India’ by Rajat Ubhaykar but last Sunday I came across two copies, brand new looking, with a seller. I bought one of the better copies. 

The Sunday Haul (on 31-10-2021)

Last Sunday it was the Sunday before Diwali so all the regular stores at Abids were open. Some of the second hand booksellers had shifted from their regular spots. The shoppers mingled with the people who had come to look at the books spread out on the pavements. It was a festive scene that wasn’t there the previous Diwali because of the pandemic. The shopkeepers must have been happy so was I because I came home with five good titles that I found during the hour and half that I spent looking at all the books spread out on the pavements of Abids.

 After almost thirty years of hanging around the second hand book market in Abids every Sunday the booksellers know me well enough to show me some books that they have kept aside. Last Sunday one such seller stopped me and took out a number of books from a sack to show me. Out of those I found a nice copy of ‘The Eye of the Storm’ by Patrick White. I had seen a Patrick White title a couple of months ago but chose not to buy it because it appeared a large tome and was also not in a good condition. But the copy of ‘The Eye of the Storm’ was in a decent condition and I decided to add it to my haul.

I already have a copy of ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’ by James Joyce that I had found some time ago. So I was hesitant to buy a second copy but the look of eager anticipation on the seller’s face made me buy it. This seemed a better copy than the one I already have and that I plan to give to someone who hasn’t read it.

Though I haven’t cooked more than a dozen times in my life I haven’t lost the desire to cook, and also the desire to read anything connected with cooking and food. This desire has led to me to buy almost a hundred books of recipes and food related writing some of which I am yet to read. So when I came across a copy of ‘In Buddha’s Kitchen’ by Kimberly Snow I picked it up for a closer look. It was a hardcover title to begin with and I got it for fifty rupees.

There are a couple of things in life I cannot resist doing. One is buying multiple copies of titles that I have found to be very interesting and that I greatly enjoyed reading. So last Sunday when I spotted a nice copy of ‘The Groaning Shelf’ by Pradeep Sebastian on a shelf on the pavement I couldn’t walk past without buying it. I already own three (or is it four?) copies of this wonderful book by India’s foremost bibliophile but I had to buy this one too so I ended up buying it as well. I got it for hundred rupees.

Though I am very interested in solving crossword puzzles sadly I do not find much time to do it daily. Which meansI am not very good at solving them since one can get better at solving crosswords only by doing it regularly. I keep trying to improve my skills at solving crosswords and one way is to read up on it. The last title I bought at Abids last Sunday was a copy of ‘Crosswords- How to Solve Them’ by Ruth Crisp that I got quite cheap at only twenty rupees.

The Sunday Haul (on 24-10-2021)

It was the usual scene at Abids on Sunday at this time of the year when Diwali is just around the corner with all the stores open. But the second hand book sellers too were at their usual places save a couple of them who had shifted to new spots. Last Sunday too I returned home with another haul of five titles, one less than what I had found the previous Sunday.

Sometime ago someone asked me what I prefer to read- humor, travel, crime fiction etc? I thought for some time and then realized that I read everything that I think is interesting. There isn’t any category or genre that I prefer over others. I read science, I read politics, read crime fiction, romance sometimes, in short everything. I am not an investor or worry about my savings too much and do not much bother whether I earn only a little by keeping it in the bank. But I do like to read about investing and such stuff.  My first find at Abids turned out to be a copy of ‘The Zurich Axioms’ by Max Gunther.

 I am slowly building up a collection of travel books by Indian writers about their travels in the country. I have at least three on my shelf that I have to read. But I told myself that I would wait until I manage to collect at least half a dozen before beginning to read them all one after the other. Fortunately last Sunday I came across two titles that I can add to my growing pile of travel books by Indians.

First was a copy of ‘Is that Even a Country, sir’ by Anil Yadav, a journalist. It is a book about the author’s visit in the North East states in the company of another friend. I saw on the cover that it was translated from Hindi by Anurag Basnet into English. I had read a review of this book somewhere I don’t remember much about the review. But now I wanted to read it so I picked it up as it looked very interesting.

Another similar title was ‘Indian Takeaway’ by Hardeep Singh Kohli a copy of which I saw on the pavement. It seems to be a travel book focussed mainly on food which was the first impression I got. Though I had seen copies of this book earlier somehow I had not found it interesting enough to buy. But now I wanted to add it to the pile of books on India by Indian writers that I want to read.

I thought I was very lucky when I found a Robert D. Kaplan title- ‘The Return of Marco Polo’s World’- the previous Sunday. But last Sunday I thought I was very, very lucky when I found yet another Robert D. Kaplan title- ‘Earning the Rockies’ that I found in a pile of books selling for hundred rupees.  I love books on travel that go deeper than just the touristy stuff.

So the next book that I found turned out to be something like a gourmet meal of travel writing. I spotted a copy of ‘The Best American Travel Writing’ 2009’ editor:  Simon Winchester in the same heap in which I had found the Robert D. Kaplan book seconds earlier.

Some of the sellers know my taste in books well and sometimes they show me books they had kept aside for me to take a look. I feel very flattered when they do it. Last Sunday one of the sellers told me he had kept aside something for me. He took out a beautiful copy of ‘Things Fall Apart’ by Chinua Achebe that had a red cover. Though I had at least two copies with me already I couldn’t resist buying it because of the cover and also to please the seller. I got this book for just seventy rupees.

The Sunday Haul (on 17-10-2021)

Last Sunday was the final day of the three-day holiday spell I had. At Abids some shops were still open since the next festival, Diwali, is only two weeks away and there seems to be marriages going on so there would be a lot of people buying clothes. Even then the booksellers were in their usual numbers which was a pleasing sight. Hari came with Anjali, his daughter, and Raja, his brother-in-law and we went around looking for good titles. They went away after tea at Light of Asia and I began my hunt in earnest.

    I don’t let go of any travel title I see wherever it is, Abids or a second hand bookstore. Last Sunday at Abids my first find happened to be a travel title-‘Travels in a Dervish Cloak: Adventures in Pakistan’ by Isambard Wilkinson. I have never read an entire travel book on Pakistan though I have read books in which the author passed through Pakistan which brings to mind Paul Theroux’s ‘The Great Railway Bazaar.’ I was quite delighted to find ‘Travels in a Dervish Cloak’ and bought it right away for seventy five rupees.

The same seller had a copy of ‘The Happiness Project’ by Gretchen Rubin that I had already bought a copy sometime last year I guess. But this was too good a copy and besides I know someone who could do good to himself if he read it so I picked it up.

Sometime last year I saw a couple of Vicki Baum titles, all hardcover copies but ancient ones coming apart. I had read just around that time about Vicki Baum and wondered if I was missing something good by not picking them up. Ultimately I did not buy those copies. Last Sunday I saw a nice copy of ‘Grand Hotel’ by Vicki Baum that I picked up right away for fifty rupees.

I had seen the copy of ‘Balancing Act’ by Meera Godbole Krishnamurthy in a heap with the seller beside Bata the previous Sunday. But I did not buy it because I had bought six books by then and did not want to add another book to the haul. I told myself that the book would be there the coming Sunday and I was right because it was there in the pile standing out because of the unusual cover. One reason I wanted to buy it was because it was a Penguin and the other reason was that I hadn’t heard of the author before and therefore was curious to know what it was all about. I got it for fifty rupees.

About a year ago I discovered Robert D Kaplan when I found a copy of ‘Balkan Ghosts’ that I read immediately afterwards and felt pleased that I had found a good writer. Since then I had been on the lookout for more of Kaplan’s titles but I couldn’t find anything until last Sunday. A few minutes after picking up ‘Balancing Act’ from a pile I decided to check out the titles on a shelf that the same seller had. I felt a jolt of thrill when I saw the name Robert D. Kaplan on the spine of a book laid flat. I took it out and saw that it was a hardcover copy of ‘The Return of Marco Polo’s World’ by Robert D. Kaplan. It was in a very good condition and I got it for a hundred rupees.

The Sunday Haul (on 10 October 2021)

 Surprisingly though Dasara was only a few days away the booksellers at Abids were present in full strength last Sunday. The place was thronging with the festival shoppers that reminded me of the days before Covid. Anyways I trawled through the books on the pavements and ended up with a large haul of seven books.

I had found a copy of David Sedaris’ ‘Me Talk Pretty One Day’ a long, long way back and since then I have been looking for his books but couldn’t find any until last Sunday when I spotted a nice copy of ‘When You are Engulfed in Flames’ by David Sedaris. It was my first find of last Sunday and I was pleased that I had made a nice start to my hauling at Abids. Another thing that added to the pleasure was that I got the book for just fifty rupees.

The second book that I found too I got for only fifty rupees. At the corner of the road opposite to the Bata store there’s a seller who had new books but sells them either for hundred rupees or for fifty rupees in separate piles. In the latter pile I saw a copy of ‘The Art of Not Falling Apart’ by Christina Patterson that I felt I should buy to read it before giving it to someone whose life seems to be falling apart.

The next find was a title by one of my favourite writers, Nadine Gordimer. I spotted a wonderful copy of ‘A Soldier’s Embrace’ by Nadine Gordimer on a make shift table that I almost missed looking at were it not for someone who did not let me pass on the pavement. I am glad that rude fellow helped me find a good book. This too I got for fifty rupees. It is a collection of short stories.

The next find was at a seller on the road beside the GPO. I saw a copy of ‘Between the World and Me’ by Ta-Nehisi Coates. I had not read anything by Ta-Nehisi Coates because I did not find a single title of his at Abids or anywhere in Hyderabad. So when I found this hardcover title I was quite excited because it was in almost new condition and seemed short enough to finish it quickly.

There are some titles I pick up the moment I spot them unmindful that I have several copies of the same title at home. One such title is ‘On Becoming a Novelist’ by John Gardner that I already have two copies of on my bookshelf. But this was a copy with a different cover that I loved.  I wondered how much the seller would ask because he usually quotes high prices but I was surprised when he asked for just sixty rupees for the copy of ‘On Becoming a Novelist’ by John Gardner.  I was especially pleased with this find.

Of late I’ve been finding gems in the heaps a seller near the Bata store has for sale for fifty rupees. Last Sunday I picked up a book with a blue cover ‘Night in Tunisia’ by Neil Jordan. I felt it could be a good book as I flipped through the pages of the short story collection that had an introduction by Sean O’Faolain. On the back cover the blub says it is a ‘stunning collection of short stories, for which Neil Jordan was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1979.’ That alone was enough to make me buy the book though I had by then bought five books. These are the ten stories in it:  Last Rites; Seduction; Sand; Mr Solomon Wept;  Night in Tunisia; Skin;  Her Soul; Outpatient; Tree;  and A Love.

The Sunday Haul ( on 03-10-2021)

Barring a few shops most of the shops at Abids were closed on Sunday though the festival season had begun with Dasara less than two weeks away, and shoppers already crowding the shops. Most of the sellers were at their usual spots and I expect that this would be the last Sunday when all of them would be around with their books before the festival season begins forcing them to other spots. Anyway, I was pleased with the nice weather and what seemed an abundance of new stocks with some sellers. It meant I managed to find three books at Abids and two more at Chikkadpally.

The first title I found was a copy of ‘The Fugitive Years’ by Robert Bradshaw. I was intrigued that it was an autobiography of someone who had spent more than twenty years in prison. It was a Penguin title so I did not hesitate much before picking it up. Later I sat in Roxy café in King Koti and began reading the book. It is very interesting and I kept reading on for almost an hour.

The sellers put certain titles in different piles and sell them at Rs 20, Rs 50 and Rs 100. One seller had a pile of books selling for only Rs 50 from which I picked up a copy of ‘Certainty’ by Madeleine Thien. I vaguely remembered reading the name somewhere until I noticed on the cover that it was shortlisted for the Man Booker in 2016. I picked it up and offered a Rs 100 note to the seller.

While the seller went around looking for change I spotted a nice copy of ‘In Cold Blood’ by Truman Capote that Hari told me he wanted. I had told him I had a copy at home but I wasn’t able to locate it. So when the seller came back and said he did not have the change so to save trouble I picked up this title as well. 

With another seller near Bata who has heaps of books for Rs 20 and for Rs 50 I spotted a thick volume in the Rs 50 pile. Surprisingly it was also in good condition and appeared like the sort of books one usually doesn’t find going so cheap so I decided to check it out. It turned out to be a copy of ‘The Business of Book Publishing: Papers by Practitioners’ edited by Elizabeth A. Geiser. I am fascinated by the whole business of books beginning with reading them after buying them, of course, and with editing, publishing etc so this titled appealed to the curious reader in me and I bought it.

On the way home I stopped to check out the books with the sellers in Chikkadpally. There’s one seller here who sells almost all his books for Rs 50 each. I spotted a copy of ‘Two Lives’ by William Trevor that I have two copies of already. But I bought this third copy as well. The seller pointed to a white sack beside him and told me to check the books inside. I wasn’t really interested in adding to my pile but I told myself I wouldn’t lose anything by taking a look. There were many titles I wasn’t interested in but one got my attention. It was a copy of ‘boys of blood and bone’ by David Metzenthen, a Penguin title. I always trust Penguin so I decided to take it.