Friday, May 14, 2021

The Sunday Haul (on 09-05-2021)

With only a few regular shops open for the Ramzan shoppers the second-hand booksellers who set shop before such shops in Abids shifted elsewhere last Sunday. Many of them were at their regular spots and I was glad to see them again after the previous Sunday’s no-show. It is so comforting to be among familiar surroundings and to see so many books spread out on the pavements waiting to be bought. It was a warm morning and there were not many people other than the regulars browsing there. In the couple of hours I was at Abids I picked up four good titles.

I had read about ‘The Vegetarian’ by Han Kang when it was in the news for being shortlisted for the Booker prize in 2016. It was a slim book of less than two hundred pages and I got it for just eighty rupees. Now with the lockdown in force I am planning to read it one of these days.

A long time back, more than ten years ago I had found a hardcover copy of ‘Travels’ by Michael Crichton at Abids. I had also read it and forgot all about it until I found another copy last Sunday. This was a paperback copy though but somehow I wanted to read it again so I bought it. I paid fifty rupees for it.

Again, long back, sometime in the early nineties I guess I had attended a talk in Hyderabad Central University where Bill Aitken too had come. I remember taking his autograph too on a notebook that I cannot find now. I loved his ‘Seven Sacred Rivers’ that I still have somewhere in the house. I don’t have ‘Travels by a Lesser Line’ by Bill Aitken that I saw with a bookseller who gave it to me for only twenty rupees.

After I had found ‘Look at Me’ by Anita Brookner sometime ago and read I wanted to read all the books she had written. I found a couple of her titles afterwards but ‘Hotel du Lac’ still eludes me. I saw a copy of ‘The Rules of Engagement’ by Anita Brookner that I got for eighty rupees. It was a nice copy and I was glad I spotted it half-hidden under other books.

Friday, May 07, 2021

An Online Haul


Last Sunday I couldn’t go to Abids as there was a wedding in the family. My niece’s marriage was on Sunday, the 2nd of May so there was no way I could go to Abids as it was held at noon and I was busy all day. The marriage was originally scheduled last December but due to travel restrictions and problems of leave from the office my niece couldn’t make it to India so it was postponed. Even though the pandemic was raging all around we had to conduct the marriage after following all precautions to the extent possible.

However, I did not really miss books though I missed going to Abids last Sunday.  About two weeks ago I had claimed a book on a WhatsApp sale by a second hand book seller. In that sale I came across ‘True Grit’ by Charles Portis that I instantly claimed. I had been on the lookout for this title after I read a few references to it in reviews online.  I had wondered if I would be able to get it here in Hyderabad but luckily I found it online. It was delivered last Thursday and I was more than happy to see it on my table when I returned from work.

The copy of ‘True Grit’ by Charles Portis that I got was a beautiful almost new copy that was lovingly encased in a plastic jacket. I think I paid Rs 200 for it including the postage charges. I am filled with an indescribable joy holding the book in my hand and feeling that I now own a good book.  I am glad I was able to claim it before anyone on the group did though later I saw that no one had claimed it.

In these times of anxiety and despair at the damage the virus is wreaking across the world reading is the only thing that is keeping me sane.