The Sunday Haul (on 24/01/2021)

Winter seems to be on its way out already in Hyderabad. It was a bit warm on Sunday morning at Abids as I began my weekly hunt for books in the second hand book market. In no time it would be summer I am sure if the temperature on Sunday was anything to go by. The previous Sunday I had seen a nice copy of ‘Dangerlok’ by Eunice de Souza but hadn’t picked it up. So this Sunday this was the first title in the haul that I got for a hundred rupees. It is a small book not more than 125 pages in all that I finished reading in a couple of hours after I got home.

The next find was a title I already have several copies of. In a pile of books being sold for twenty rupees I found a copy of ‘Riding the Iron Rooster’ by Paul Theroux. It was in an okay condition except for slight damage to the cover but the pages themselves were intact. I love this book and so bought it. These were the two titles I found at Abids before I left. On the way there were a couple of sellers at Chikkadpally and one at the corner of the RTC Crossroads junction.

At the RTC Crossroads junction I saw a copy of ‘The Naked I’ edited by Frederick R. Karl and Leo Hamalion. The cover was torn in a couple of places but it appeared an interesting book. It had stories/extracts from books from the seventies by Jorge Luis Borges, Dylan Thomas, Leonard Cohen, R.D. Laing and others. In all it had 24 fiction pieces and three non-fiction pieces and at thirty rupees it was a steal.

The Sunday Haul (on 17/01/2021)

Many years ago, perhaps two and half decades ago, I had jotted a title in a notebook I was maintaining at that time. The title was ‘Tales of the Hasidim’ by Martin Buber but I forgot where I had read the title now. But the notebook remains and I come across this title in a list of books I wanted to read. Last Sunday the first title I found was a nice copy of ‘Souls on Fire’ by Eli Wiesel. I know the name Eli Wiesel and that the author had won a Nobel Prize. But I do not remember the titles of his books. Anyway when I flipped through the pages of ‘Souls of Fire’ I came across the word Hasidim. Of course, I was curious to know what Hasidim was and bought the book.

Of all the genres of books I am mad about books about books tops the list. In the nearly thirty years of my visits to the Abids second hand book market I have found only a few books on books and just a couple on collecting books. So when I came across a copy of ‘Understanding Book Collecting’ by Grant Uden that a seller displayed on the pavement I naturally became very excited. It was a beautiful copy, a hardcover title with the jacket and published in 1983 by Antique Collectors Club, UK.

My next stop was a seller who, in recent weeks, has begun selling titles of the 60’s and there appeared to be many interesting ones he had. Last Sunday I picked up four interesting titles from his pile. Incidentally, a couple of years ago I had found my first copy of ‘The Friends of Eddie Coyle’ by George V. Higgins at this same seller. Last Sunday I found my second copy at the same place! This one looked older and had a picture of the hero from the film. I jumped at it and picked it up.

A long time ago, nearly three decades ago a friend lent me a copy of ‘Summer of 42’ by Herman Raucher that I did not read for a long time. But when I read it I realized it was a wonderful book and over the subsequent years I read and reread the book a number of times. Then, a couple of years back I found my own copy of the same title and later found a couple more copies with the same cover and in total I have about four copies. Last Sunday at Abids I found my fifth copy!

Under the copy of ‘Summer of 42’ by Herman Raucher I found another title by Herman Raucher. It was ‘A Glimpse of Tiger’ that I decided to buy since I haven’t read anything else by Herman Rauchter other than ‘Summer of 42.’ The treasure wasn’t yet over because I saw another title that I knew I had to buy.

It was the cover of ‘It Started in Naples’ by Saul Cooper that made me buy the interesting title with an even more interesting blurb. I bought all these four titles for a hundred and fifty rupees.

The Sunday Haul (on 10-01-2021)

 

Sometime last week I began reading ‘The Greek Myths’ by Robert Graves and it reminded me of the time I had seen a nice copy of ‘Histories’ by Herodotus at Abids a couple of years ago. I very much regretted not buying it since the seller had quoted a too high a price. It was a stupid decision I felt later. I thought I’d never come across such a book again but last Sunday another copy turned up at Abids! This time I simply picked up the book, paid the seller and thanked my stars for having found such a wonderful title. It runs into almost 700 pages and is quite a bulky tome but I know every line in that book is fascinating. I am very eager to read it.

By now I have bought almost all title by Marquez that I came across and have also read them. Last Sunday at Abids I saw a nice copy of ‘In Evil Hour’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez with a different cover and it made me wonder if I have this title at home. Not wanting to miss it I picked up this copy that I got for just fifty rupees.

A little later across the road I spotted a copy of ‘Everything I Never Told You’ by Celeste Ng. I have read about Celeste Ng but haven’t had the good fortune of coming across any title by her so when I saw this copy of ‘Everything I Never Told You’ by Celeste Ng I just grabbed it. I got it again for only fifty rupees.

I did not know about the novelist Tessa Hadley until I came across a beautiful copy of ‘The Past’ at Abids last Sunday. I thought I wouldn’t find any more good books after the three books I picked up till then but when I saw the copy of ‘The Past’ by Tessa Hadley I was surprised. It was the blurbs on the cover, especially the one by Zadie Smith- ‘Few writers give me such consistent pleasure’ that made me pick up the book. Even otherwise, without the blurbs I would have picked up the book just for the cover. I got this book also for only fifty rupees.

The Sunday Haul- The first one of the New Year (03-01-2020)

Sometime back, maybe last month, I made a couple of new bibliophile friends online. They sent messages to me after I bagged a few books in a WhatsApp auction. I sent a book to one of them and in return he sent me a book that I did not expect. I got it on the last day of 2020. It was a copy of ‘The Lost Heart of Asia’ by Colin Thubron, a travel title. I was a bit overwhelmed, as is usual for me whenever I get books as gifts. It was a beautiful copy, almost new. 2020 ended nicely that way, with a book as a gift.

On Sunday at Abids, it was the usual mild winter morning with a bright and sunny day. There was a title I had been noticing with a seller since the past couple of weeks. I felt drawn to it but somehow I did not pick it up though for all appearances it looked like a good tale. The attractive cover and that it was a crime fiction title should have made me buy it right away but since the past two or three weeks I had been walking away from it. But last Sunday however I couldn’t hold back and picked up the copy of ‘Death in Willow Pattern’ by WJ Burley.

In the same pile was another title- ‘12 from the Sixties’ edited by Richard Kostelanetz. It is a collection of twelve short stories by some great writers that can be found on the cover- Tillie Olsen I had wanted to find since long but couldn’t so far. I haven’t heard of Irvin Faust, Kenneth Koch, and also HW Blattner. It looked very interesting so I picked it up. Both these books I got for twenty five rupees each.

I never miss titles, especially crime fiction titles by Penguin. When I saw a copy of ‘Providence’ by Geoffrey Wolff a little away from where I had picked up the first two titles of the day, I picked it up to take a closer look. The cover was a bit damaged but when I saw the blurb, the first one in a long list, by Ross Thomas saying it was a very good and witty novel  I realized I had made a good choice and bought it for just thirty rupees.

Sometime back I had at last found a copy of ‘From here to Eternity’ by James Jones. I had been looking for it ever since I found it mentioned in a very good writing book that I was reading. It took me a long time to find it, something like a decade. I was ecstatic when I found it but I haven’t yet started reading it. One reason is that it is too long something like 820 pages. I wondered how anyone found the time to write such lengthy books and also how anyone would read such tomes though I bought it with the intention of reading it. But I really had no idea that James Jones had written another lengthy novel running into more than 700 pages until I actually came across it last Sunday. What was astonishing was that I found this massive tome in a pile of books going for just twenty rupees! I found a nice copy of ‘Go to the Widow Maker’ by James Jones.

The next find was at the seller on the corner of the RTC X Roads where I have found many interesting titles earlier. ‘Tara Lane’ by Shama Futehally was one title I had been hearing for so long that I wondered why I wasn’t able to find it anywhere. But finally last Sunday I saw a copy and grabbed it. It turned out to be a hardcover copy with the jacket intact but torn. I was excited finding such an old edition. I got it for thirty rupees only. 

The Sunday Haul (on 27-12-2020)

I spotted the first haul of last Sunday at Abids when I saw a copy of ‘Swimming Lessons & Other Stories from Firozsha Baag’ by Rohinton Mistry in a pile of books spread on the pavement meters away from where I park my bike. The copy was in a good condition and flipping through it I saw that it had eleven stories in it. Published by Vintage International, it was the first (and only?) short story collection by Rohinton Mistry I have found so far. I had to shell out two hundred rupees for this book.  

The second find of the day was another collection of short stories by a writer I have never heard of before. I spotted a copy of ‘River’s End and Other Stories’ by Anthony C.West with a cover that looked like it was published sometime in the sixties or so. I was right because inside I read that it was published in 1960! It was quite thick and running into 206 pages though there are only eight stories in it. On the back cover was a blurb by Sean O’Faolain ‘We must hold our breath in the presence of one of the most tremblingly sensitive imagination that has yet ventured into the jungle of Irish life.’

The next find was yet another collection of short stories and incidentally, published in 1960. It was a copy of ‘Saturday Lunch with the Brownings’ by Penelope Mortimer. I remember faintly reading about this writer and I was glad I found it because inside the Times has this to say about her: ‘She is a joy to read.’ On the back cover was this blurb from The Guardian: ‘A writer who can knock spots off most of her contemporaries.’ I hope the book is as good as they say. This collection has only twelve stories. I got both these books for fifty rupees. 

I had seen a title the previous Sunday but had not picked it up because the back cover was damaged but otherwise the book was in good condition. Later I realized it could be a valuable copy so when I saw it last Sunday I bought it. I got it for just twenty rupees. It was a copy of ‘Silence of Desire’ by Kamala Markandaya.

The last find of the day was at Chikkadpally. I found a nice copy of ‘The Eighteenth Parallel’ by Ashokamitran. I love this book because of the writing and also because it is set in Secunderabad where I live. I have several copies of it but I simply cannot resist buying a copy if I come across it. I paid only fifty rupees for this book.

These five books made up the last Sunday haul of 2020. I guess I bought around 170 books last year and have read an almost equal number of books thanks to the lockdown. Happy New Year.