The Sunday Haul (on 25-10-2026)

 

Saturday evening it looked like winter is beginning as the temperature went down with the air becoming cold. Sunday morning was bright and sunny as I left for Abids. I stopped at RTC X roads to check out the titles laid out on a table. I spotted a copy of 'Penguin New Writing' edited by John Lehmann, and decided to buy it when I saw inside the names of Edith Sitwell and Nelson Algren in the contents page. This was No. 34 and came at fifty rupees only though the cover was coming loose. 

Next find was also at Chikkadpally with a seller at the end of the long road leading towards Narayanguda. I found a copy of 'A Room of One's Own' by Virginia Woolf, a Penguin edition. I already have a copy of this title but not this edition so I bought it after paying fifty rupees for it. 

At Abids the only find was a copy of 'My Paper Chase: An Autobiography' by Harold Evans who I read was of the Sunday Times and Times newspapers in the UK. Of late I am finding many titles, memoirs and autobiographies of editors and journalists that I love to read because they are frank and tell things as they are. I got this title for hundred rupees. 

The Sunday Haul (on 18-10-2026)

 

Season wise it is winter but temperature wise it is summer in Hyderabad these days. Last Sunday it was quite warm in the morning when I started for Abids. First stop was at Chikkadpally on the way to Abids and I spotted a nice book. I found a copy of 'The Making of Literature' by RA Scott-James that was about art and literature criticism. I haven't heard of the author's name before but a quick glance at random paragraphs gave the impression that it could be a good book on criticism so I bought it. 

At Abids I found copies of titles I already have with me. I had found a copy of 'Writing from the Margin & Other Essays' by Shashi Deshpande a couple of years back, and I found another copy with the same cover. I just loved the essays by her on a lot of topics especially about her writing. The seller wanted only fifty rupees for this wonderful book that was in good condition. 

The other title I found was a copy of 'Two Under the Indian Sun: A Memoir' by Jon and Rumer Godden with a cover that was different from the one on the copy I had found earlier. The cover on the copy I found last Sunday was simply too attractive to leave behind so I bought it. I paid only eighty rupees for it. 

Though not officially announced it was on social media that this year's Hyderabad Book Fair dates are from 18-28 December at the NTR Stadium grounds, a venue that seems to be permanent. 

The Sunday Haul (on 11-10-2026)

 

More than forty years ago I had read 'The Indian Epics Retold' by R.K. Narayan that was on a shelf at home. Now I do not remember anything I had read in it but since a long time I had searched for a copy for myself. Finally, last Sunday I found a wonderful copy that had the Ramayana, Mahabharata and also had another book 'Gods, Demons, and Others' in it. It was an almost new copy but I got it for just two hundred rupees. 

'Things Fall Apart' by Chinua Achebe is one book that shook me, and also made want to read more of books by African writers. Luckily I found many titles by Ngugi, and others besides almost all Achebe titles. So far I have found about half a dozen copies of Achebe's best book- 'Things Fall Apart' that I have given to friends and others. Last Sunday at Abids I found another copy in wonderful condition that I got cheap at just eighty rupees. 

The day before, on Saturday, on an impulse I decided to check at a seller who has a couple of shelves on the pavement in Gandhinagar. I was pleasantly shocked to find a copy of 'Marilyn' by Norman Mailer that I had read somewhere was difficult to find. But this copy seemed a recent one, and I was glad I found it, and also got it pretty cheap at just a hundred and fifty rupees. 

The Sunday Haul (on 04-10-2026)

 

Sometime in May this year I had found a copy of 'The Dismantling of India' by TJS George on a WhatsApp group of a second-hand bookseller. I've read some column 'Point of View' of TJS George here and there, and found them to be sharp and biting, mostly about politics and politicians. But I haven't found his columns all at one place. 

TJS George passed away last October, and in the obituary I read that is column had run uninterrupted for twenty-five years in The New Indian Express but I did not know there was a book about some of his columns. Last Sunday at Abids I was lucky and found a copy of 'The First Refuge of Scoundrels: Politics in Modern India' by TJS George, a collection of several of his columns neatly arranged under eight sections. I got this hardcover copy for eighty rupees, and I plan to read one column a day regularly till I finish the book. 

The Sunday Haul (27-09-2026)

 

On some Sundays I wish I wouldn't find anything good at Abids because I'm buying so many books that it is causing anxiety in me. During the week the two books I had found online were delivered. They were huge tomes and I wonder when I will find the time to read them. So I did not look forward to find any good title at Abids last Sunday. But I found only one title at the last minute. 

'The Contenders: Who Will Lead India Tomorrow?' by Priya Sahgal is a book of profiles of young (and some old) politicians in India who are expected to, one day, lead the country. Some of those politicians featured include Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Kumar Yadav, Asadudding Owaisi, and others.