Last week I was in Bengaluru to attend the BangaloreLiterature Festival, and had a day free before the Lit Fest, and also a day free after the Lit Fest that I used to check out the bookstores on Church Street. I picked up more than a dozen books at Blossoms, Bookworm and also at Book Hive that I went to on the two days I was free.
On Friday afternoon I first went to Blossoms, the old one first, where I found a hardcover copy of ‘Memoir’ by John McGahern. Inside the pages were some paper cuttings about John McGahern and his books that the previous owner seemed to have made out of the TLS and other periodicals including one in German in a German periodical. There were two pages of a review by Mary Kenny of ‘Memoir’ by McGahern, and also another cutting of a review of the same title by Gerals Mangan. Whoever it was who was the previous owner he or she must have been a real fan of John McGahern.
The second book I found at the Blossoms was a copy of ‘Views from Abroad: The Spectator Book of Travel Writing’ with a foreword by Colin Thubron. It has about a hundred travel essays in sections divided into Travel and Travellers, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa, The Middle East, The Far East and Australia, North America, and finally Central and South America. There are essays on some big names in travel writing like Patrick Leigh Fermor, Eric Newby, Shiva Naipaul, as well as essays by Freya Stark, James Morris (now Jan Morris), V.S. Naipaul, Evelyn Waugh, Rose Macaulay and several other writers.
I went to the Blossoms store where I picked up four Jan Morris titles. The first was a beautiful copy of ‘Pleasures of a Tangled Life.’ I was thrilled to read that it is the second volume of her autobiography, the first being ‘Conundrum’ that I have. It has about thirty-six chapters or essays I should say about various topics.
The second Jan Morris title was a nice copy of ‘Destinations’ that is a collection of some of the essays she wrote for ‘Rollng Stones’ magazine. It has ten essays about the various places she had travelled to including one on New Delhi that I have already read somewhere.
The third was a copy of ‘Europe, An Intimate Journey’ that was about, what else, Europe and its history and countries in Europe. After reading the blurbs at the back of the back and in the inside pages I just want to begin reading it right away but I will keep it for later, or maybe make it the first title I want to read in 2025 which is just days away.
The fourth was a ‘A Writer’s World: Travels 1950-2000’ that was about her travels across the world described in eighty-seven essays. This book too I am tempted to read right away but I will read it later sometime in March 2025 which is when I will be really free as I will be retiring from my job.
Now I realize I did a foolish thing by not picking up the other two titles of the Pax Britannica trilogy, the first and the third title called “Heaven’s Command: An Imperial Progress’ and ‘Farewell the Trumpets: An Imperial retreat’ respectively since I already had the second title called ‘Pax Britannica’ in the trilogy. I am wondering how to rectify this lapse. There were also Dervla Murphy titles, one was ‘South from the Limpopo’ and the other about travels in Madagascar (‘Muddling Through in Madagascar’) that I should have also bought.
Since I had already bought half a dozen titles by then I did not feel like buying more titles since there was Bookworm, Book Hive left to check out. After a sandwich and cup of coffee in the India Coffee House I went straight to the newly opened Antiquarian Bookworm store that I had read about on social media, and that I was eager to check out for books on books. It was a wonderful store inside a store, with wooden shelves with glass fronts, and nice lighting. It felt like being inside a quaint antiquarian bookstore.
I had the surprise of my life when I saw the author of one of my favorite books- The Groaning Shelf, as well as ‘The Book Beautiful’ and ‘An Inky Parade: Tales for Bibliophiles’ that I bought and had it signed by him. I am a fan of Pradeep Sebastian since the days his column on books called ‘Endpaper’ were published in The Hindu. It was a dream coming true meeting the columnist and writer after nearly thirty years. They did not have a copy of ‘The Groaning Shelf’ or I would have bought it and got it signed by Pradeep Sebastian.
As recommended by Pradeep Sebastian I bought these three titles.
‘The Pope’s Bookbinder’ by David Mason
‘Fishers of Books’ by Barton Currie
‘The Book about Books: The Anatomy of Bibliomania’ by Holbrook Jackson
After the BLF, on Monday I went again to Bookworm and found a copy of ‘The World of Robert Fisk’ that was the first of a two-volume series that came with The Independent newspaper. I was disappointed that I couldn’t find the second title. It is a slim title that has columns by one of the boldest journalists who had covered several wars. I feel lucky to have found his other titles a while back.
Another wonderful title I found there was a copy of ‘I Served the King of England’ by Bohumil Hrabal that I was excited to spot. I have a copy of ‘The Death of Mr. Baltisberger’ and also ‘The Little Town Where Time Stood Still’ that I have read and ever since I wanted to read more of his books.
Later I went to Book Hive and was elated to find another wonderful book that I had been looking for since a long time. I spotted an almost new copy of ‘African Silences’ by Peter Matthiessen with a stunning blue cover that I grabbed the instant I saw it. It is a Harvill edition and I was thrilled to have found it. I think it is one of the best finds of the year.
That makes it twelve books I bought in Bengaluru. The 37th Hyderabad Book Fair is beginning from today ( 19th December, 2024) and is held until 29th December. I have to see how many books I will find in these ten days of the book fair. Afterwards I have to count how many books I had bought during this year. I think it will easily cross 250!