The Sunday Haul (on 12-04-2026)

 
        The weather forecast had said that the next ten days from the 12th to 22nd of this month it would be very hot and that heatwaves are likely. It was indeed hot on Sunday morning when I stepped out of the house to go on my weekly visit to Abids to check out the books in the second-hand books market there. For a brief moment I wondered if it would be a good idea to stay home instead of getting roasted in the sun for a couple of hours. I put the idea of staying at home out of my mind and went ahead. 

At the first stop in RTC X Roads I found a copy of 'A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again' by David Foster Wallace that I had found a long time back and had also read it. I picked it up to send to a friend in Mumbai who is a David Foster Wallace fan. I got it for eighty rupees. Next find was also with the same seller. I spotted a copy of 'The Cambridge Introduction to Creative Writing' by David Morley that I also decided to buy. I can never get enough of books on writing so in it went into the haul. This was for a hundred rupees. When I read a few paragraphs at random I felt that it was more interesting than other academic books on creative writing I've read so far. 

        Next find with another seller in Chikkadpally was a beautiful copy of 'Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman' by Richard P. Feynman. I see so many copies of this title but haven't bought one so far. I am rather poor in physics and mathematics so I kept away from it for a long time. But I bought it for my son in the hope that he finds the time to read it. I paid a hundred rupees for it. 

        Then I left for Abids and reached after half hour. One of the first titles I saw with the guys in front of the GPO was a book with an attractive cover. It was a copy of 'Themes in Indian History: Caste in History' edited by Ishita Banerjee-Dube, an Oxford Paperbacks publication. I bought it right away, another good addition to my collection of titles on caste that is now about a dozen titles strong. I paid a hundred and eighty rupees for this wonderful title. 

            Then I met my friends at the Star of India cafe and sat talking with them as usual about books, writers, and also movies. It was almost an hour when we decided to go our ways. Outside I spotted a copy of 'East of the Sun' by Siddhartha Sarma, a travel book on the North-East India. I already have about half a dozen such titles on travel in the North East India so I thought it would make a good addition to it and so bought it for a hundred rupees.