After missing my Sunday visits to the Abids second hand book bazaar for two consecutive Sundays, I was able to go there last Sunday. I had been in Ooty for two weeks on work and though I found a couple of good books in a small bookstore there I missed the slow and lazy browse at Abids. I was glad I was back in Hyderabad though it was pretty hot compared to the cool weather in Ooty. I felt at home walking down the road looking at the hundreds of books spread out on the pavements and seeing the familiar faces of the regular sellers at Abids. Though I had been away for only two weeks it felt like ages.
Travel titles are what I am most interested in and most of my time is taken up with travelogues by writers like Pico Iyer, Kaupuscinski, Sebald, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Freya Stark and several other wonderful writers. All this reading has only made me curious about the history and also the geography of the places I read about in these books. I do not miss any book that gives a detailed history of any place I am familiar with (of course, only in books) so when I saw a copy of ‘White Nile’ by Alan Moorehead I grabbed it. I haven’t read anything by Alan Moorehead so far nor have I read much about the White Nile so this title piqued my interest and I am itching to read it as soon as I finish reading ‘The Great Railway Bazaar’ by Paul Theroux which I am half way through.
It was only recently that I read somewhere about John McGahern. ‘Amongst Women’ by John McGahern who is an Irish writer. I had read a few Irish writers and found their writing to be very powerful. I do not know how I missed knowing about John McGahern but I am glad at last I found a title by him. The blurb by John Banville says it is ‘A Masterpiece’ which is making me want to read it right away which I might do.
I
got these two books for hundred rupees each which is a bit more than what I pay
usually but I did not mind paying it since I found these two wonderful
titles.
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