The Sunday Haul (on 22-12-2024)

 Even after buying more than half a dozen titles on my two visits to the 37^th Hyderabad National Book Fair that began on the 19^th of December I couldn’t resist going to Abids on Sunday. Most of the sellers had set up stalls at the Book Fair and were missing at Abids. But that wasn’t the reason why I found only one book last Sunday at Abids. 

 

I found a copy of ‘The Barbarous Coast’ by Ross MacDonald that I got for fifty rupees. Ross MacDonald is one of my favourite writers and so I bought the book thinking I did not have this title in my collection of MacDonald’s titles. But when I later checked in my bookshelves I saw the copy of ‘The Barbarous Coast’ that I had bought long back. I wasn’t disappointed since the copies had different covers. 

The Bengaluru Haul (13 & 16/12/2024)

 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 37^th Hyderabad Book Fair is beginning from today ( 19^th December, 2024) and is held until 29^th 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!

The Sunday Haul (on 08-12-2024)

It was another cloudy Sunday in Hyderabad the sort of weather that makes one feel gloomy. It was how I felt when I left for Abids from home after breakfast praying I would not be tempted to find more than two titles. Surprisingly, I found only two titles that I brought home.

 The first title was a copy of a book I already have but don’t know where it is lying at home. So when I saw a good copy of ‘Ten Novels and their Authors’ by Somerset Maugham I picked it up. It is a great book in which Maugham writes extensively and deeply about classic novels like ‘Tom Jones’ by Henry Fielding, ‘Pride Prejudice’ by Jane Austen, and other titles as well as about their authors. Reading it was a lesson in writing. I got this book for just fifty rupees.

 

The second title I found at one of the sellers in Chikkadpally on the way home. I saw a nice copy of ‘South African Dispatches’ by Donald Woods, a Penguin title that had a foreword by Alan Paton author of ‘Cry, the Beloved Country’ a classic. ‘South African Dispatches’ is a collection of columns by Donald Woods published in Daily Dispatch of which he was the editor. This book too I got for fifty rupees. 

 

At the same seller I saw a copy of ‘The Closing of the American Mind’ by Allan Bloom that I had read about on X just days ago. However, I did not buy it and now I am regretting not buying it. I will be in Bengaluru next Sunday and I hope it would still be available by the time I return and go to Chikkadpally the following Sunday. 

The Sunday Haul (on 01-12-2024)

 Unlike the past few Sundays when it was bright and sunny, last Sunday the sky was overcast making it a gloomy day. But fortunately it did not rain until late in the evening so I was able to visit Abids to look at the books spread on the pavement. I managed to find just one title after looking around for a couple of hours. 

 I saw a small and slim copy of ‘A Line in Water’ by Amrita Pritam with a seller. Sometime back I had found copies of her other titles like ‘The Skeleton’, and also ‘Two Faces of Eve’ that I am yet to find the time to read. I hesitated before buying another Amrita Pritam title but since it seemed to have around 140 pages I bought it hoping I could read it in one day whenever I could find a day free to read. 

 

I have not read about ‘A Line in Water’ anywhere so I do not know how good it is.