The Sunday Haul (on 19-07-2015)

Occasionally the haul consists entirely of titles belonging to one specific genre. Last Sunday at Abids out of my haul of three books two were short story collections. I am always in search of good short story collections and last Sunday I was happy to find a collection of stories by various writers such as Katherine Mansfield, William Faulkner, Ted Hughes and other well known names including two or three names I am not familiar with.
The first book I picked up was a collection of short stories titled ‘Modern Short Stories’ edited by Jim Hunter. I bought this book for only thirty rupees.

This nice title has the following fifteen stories:
The Peaches by Dylan Thomas
The Wedge-Tailed Eagle by Geoffrey Dutton
Her First Ball by Katherine Mansfield
Ha’penny by Alan Paton
The Rain Horse by Ted Hughes
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber
The Road by James Hanley
Growing Up by Joyce Carey
Lie Thee Down, Oddity by T.F.Powys
Samphire by Patrick OBrian
Tickets, Please by D.H.Lawrence
Indian Camp by Ernest Hemingway
The Ice Palace by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner
The Wharf by Walter De La Mare

The other short story collection I found shortly afterwards was ‘The Matisse Stories’ by A.S. Byatt that I got for only fifty rupees. The book is in a wonderful condition and looks quite new. It has a signature and a date 20 April 95 which means that it is twenty years old. But it looks quite new. It has only three stories: Medusa’s Ankles, Art Work, and The Chinese Lobster.

The third and last book in the haul was by a writer I like immensely for the way he writes. I found ‘My Years with BOSS at Gemini Studios’ by Ashokamitran. It is a slim volume, as all his books are, with just forty four pages. I got this for only twenty rupees. It was a great find I guess.

The Sunday Haul (on 12-07-2015)

Most Sundays I am in luck while looking for books at Abids and regularly land some good titles. But on some Sundays I am extra-lucky. Last Sunday turned out to be one such Sunday. Though I found only two books they were titles by authors normally difficult to find, especially an author not many had heard of until last year. When it was announced in November last that he had won the Nobel Prize in Literature no one seemed to know much about Patrick Modiano. At that time I had thought that it would be tough, if not impossible, to find any book by Patrick Modiano since he happened to write in French. Of course, I had forgotten about it all until last Sunday.

It was at Chikkadpally, on the way back home that I spotted a copy of ‘The Search Warrant’ by Patrick Modiano. I would have missed finding it had I not looked at the name a second time after retrieving the book from under another bulky book where it was almost hidden. ‘The Search Warrant’ is a slim volume, just 137 pages long and the copy I found was in beautiful condition and appeared to be almost new. However, there was a small bit missing from a few pages and it looked like a termite job. I did not mind it because it is impossible to find a secondhand copy of a book by someone like Patrick Modiano. I felt lucky finding it and luckier still that I had paid only fifty rupees for it.

At Abids, before I found ‘The Search Warrant’ I had picked up another copy by another writer who is likely to win the Nobel in the near future, maybe this year. I found a good copy of Haruki Murakami’s ‘Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman’ that I managed to buy for only fifty rupees. It is a collection of 24 short stories and this is the second copy I have with me. Long back I had found a hard cover copy of this same title at Abids and I had got it at a much cheaper price. I paid only twenty rupees for this wonderful collection of short stories by Murakami.

The Sunday Haul

Three weeks into the month of Ramzan some of the shops in Abids opened their doors on Sunday to let in the surging crowds of shoppers. This meant that the sellers of second hand books who normally set shop on the piece of pavement before these stores had to shift to other places. This was a displaced Abids book bazaar that I saw last Sunday. Another Sunday and things would be normal with each seller sitting at his usual place on the pavement. The clear day seemed to bring in more Ramzan shoppers outnumbering those who had come to look at the second hand books.
Ever since I got the idea to rebuild my Len Deighton collection I have been finding one or the other title in the trilogies. The other Sunday I had found a good copy of ‘Spy Line’ by Len Deighton, the second of the Hook, Line, and Sinker trilogies. Earlier I had found ‘Faith’ in the Faith, Hope, and Charity trilogy. This Sunday I found the first title ‘Spy Game’ of the Game, Set, and Match Trilogies. I found this title in the thirty rupee heap. At this rate it won’t be long before I rebuild the three trilogies.

About a month ago or so I had seen two travel books, both by Indian authors. I had spotted ‘Roadrunner’ by Dilip D’Souza and also ‘Looking for America’ by Avirook Sen. Coincidentally, they happened to be accounts of the author’s visits to the USA. As usual I thought I would pick them up later and went on. Then when I looked for them a week later I couldn’t find them. I couldn’t spot them the next Sunday too. So I thought some smart soul must have picked them up. I had seen a copy of ‘Roadrunner’ at another second hand bookstore and I didn’t regret missing this copy at Abids but I realized I wouldn’t be able to find ‘Looking for America’ again. But I was wrong. I found the copy at a different seller and bought it before I changed my mind.

Shortly after finding these two titles I came across a good copy of ‘The Famished Road’ by Ben Okri that I have been trying to find since a long time. Ever since I found and read Chinua Achebe’s wonderful books I have been on the lookout for books by African writers. I have books by Ngugi, Chimamanda Adichie, Binyavanga Wainaina, and others which I have found to be fantastic reads. So when I found this copy of ‘The Famished Road,’ I bought it even though I had to shell out a hundred rupees for it.

With these three books the total tally of books I picked up this year comes to 96. It won’t be very long before it reaches hundred books. I haven’t read half as many so far this year.

The Sunday Haul

Two weeks into the month of Ramzan and the crowds of shoppers doesn't seem to have made many stores at Abids open their shops on Sunday also. It meant that many of the second hand book sellers at Abids could be found at their old places before the store fronts at Abids. Maybe next week things would be different I thought as I began the search for books along with my friends last Sunday at Abids. It was a sunny morning and quite a pleasant day to look for books.

In my continuing bid to read books by Indian writers of the early nineties I keep an eye out for such titles. Last Sunday I found 'Whirlwind' by NS Phadke. 'Whirlwind' is the English translation of the author's original novel written in Marathi. I read that the novel was also serialized in the Çaravan magazine in 1951. The novel is published by Jaico Books and the copy I found was in a good condition. I got it for just twenty rupees.

Recently I had thought of resurrecting my Len Deighton collection when I found 'Faith' a couple of weeks back. This Sunday I found 'Spy Line' in a heap of books selling for thirty rupees. It was in good condition and I think not very soon I will be able to find the other seven titles that make up the three trilogies.

The other day while browsing at a second hand bookstore in Punjagutta I came across a nice copy of Joseph Conrad's 'The Heart of Darkness' that I got quite cheap at fifty rupees only. Sometime back I had found a copy of this title but since it is difficult to find I thought I would buy it.

A Mid-week Haul

Last Sunday it was pure agony. I was confined at home all day because it was raining since the previous night. On Saturday night I had gone to sleep hoping the skies would clear up by morning so I could go to Abids. Unfortunately my hope did not stand a chance. I experience a kind of deprivation or withdrawal symptoms if I do not go to Abids on Sunday. I manage to get over that feeling by dropping in at a second hand bookstore but it doesn’t feel the same as looking at the books spread out on the pavement. Sometime last week I had dropped in at the Best Books branch at Abids where I saw a book of travel essays and one of which was by Moritz Thomsen. I did not buy it right away which is one fatal mistake I commit quite regularly. Yesterday when I dropped in at the store I couldn’t locate the book. It made me sick.

However, looking around at the books stacked from floor to ceiling in the cramped store I found a book that I had been looking for since quite a long time. I found ‘Fresh-Air Fiend’ by Paul Theroux that I had missed buying the first time I saw it ages ago. Since then I have had my eyes peeled for this book and at last I found it. It made me forget the travel collection I had missed buying. I was ready to spend any amount for this title but fortunately it was only less than two hundred rupees which, still, is quite a high price. But then prices of second hand books in Abids and in second hand book stores aren’t the same.

The copy of ‘Fresh-Air Fiend’ by Paul Theroux that I found was a beautiful copy with a blue cover and it looked quite new. The book is divided into eight parts with a total of more than fifty pieces, all of them related to travel, needless to say. This is a collection of his travel writings during the period 1985-2000. I am interested in reading the pieces in Part Six of the book which deals with Books of Travel- his and others’. I am terribly pleased with myself that I could find this book instead of the book I was looking for.

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The Sunday Haul (on 14-06-2015)

After watching the heavy rains last Saturday I felt that the rain would continue on Sunday too. In fact, it rained until early in the morning on Sunday and for sometime it looked like I may have to skip the visit to Abids. I was secretly relieved that I would not have to go to Abids. In the past two weeks I had bought several books and I did not want to buy any more for a while. If I went to Abids I wouldn’t return empty handed. However, the sky cleared up by the time it was ready to go to Abids.

The first book I bought at Abids was ‘The Tennis Partner’ by Abraham Verghese that I bought for only twenty rupees. There were scores of copies stacked on the ground as if someone had decided to dump them all. Almost all the copies were in good condition and I was lucky I got a good copy cheap.

While at Goa in April I had been to a bookstore called Literati where in a room filled with second hand books I found a beautiful hardbound copy of ‘A Summer of Tigers’ by Keki N. Daruwala. I paid seventy five rupees for it since I thought I would not be able to get another copy of this rare title. However, last Sunday I came across another beautiful paperback copy that was almost new. The seller asked for only twenty rupees for it.

On the way back home, I stopped at Chikkadpally where I found two more books. I found ‘Slaughterhouse 5’ and also ‘Cat’s Cradle’ both by Kurt Vonnegut. The copies I found were in good condition and appeared almost new. Unlike the sellers at Abids the guys at Chikkadpally don’t bring down the price much. I had to pay hundred and fifty rupees for these two books.

At another seller at Chikkadpally I found ‘The Art of Dramatic Writing’ by Lajos Egri. I have a similar copy with me that I found years ago in a second hand bookstore in Hyderabad. I paid half of the two hundred rupees I had paid for my first copy. I returned home with this five book haul and spent the rest of the afternoon rearranging the books on the shelves at home to accommodate the latest arrivals.

The Sunday Haul (on 07-06-2015)

Three days after landing a great midweek haul at Best Books at Lakdikapul, I found three more books at Abids on Sunday. I found yet another Orient Paperbacks title with that sort of cover that they had sometime in the seventies. I am thinking of collecting these titles published in the sixties and seventies because there is something about these covers that’s appealing. The first book I found, the Orient Paperback title was a classic in Indian Writing in English. I had seen several copies of Raja Raj’s ‘The Serpent and the Rope’ but never could find a good enough copy to buy. Last Sunday I found a good copy of ‘The Serpent and the Rope’ by Raja Rao that had a quaint cover. Inside I saw that the print was in one of those fonts that suggest simplicity and elegance.

My second find was a title that I decided I would give to a friend. I found ‘The Penguin Book of Hymns’ edited by Ian Bradley that I thought would be an ideal gift for Daniel. After I took this home I saw that it had a hundred and fifty hymns including those I had only read about- Amazing Grace, and Lead Kindly Light. The book had a lengthy but interesting note about each Hymn- who wrote it, when, and such interesting details. I read that Lead Kindly Light was the second great hymn by John Henry Newman. It was interesting to read that Newman’s verses were a particular favorite of Queen Victoria and were read out to her as she lay dying in 1901. It gives one how deeply some verses/hymns/poems affect individuals. I will ask Daniel to let me keep the book for some time until I finish reading all the hymns.

The next find was a title by one of my favorite writers- Len Deighton. My collection of his titles has dwindled and so when I saw ‘Faith’ in a heap selling for only ten rupees I picked it up. I plan to rebuild my collection of Len Deighton titles, especially the trilogies- Game, Set, Match; Hook, Line, Sinker; and Faith, Hope, Charity. I see many Len Deighton titles at Abids all the time so it won’t be long before I have them all on my bookshelf.

Apart from these books, the really interesting finds were three volumes of some old Indian poetry magazines that I found at one place. I found ‘Indian Verse’ Vol 2, No. 3 of Summer 74 and Vol 3, No. 1 of Winter 1975. The third volume was Vol. 1 No. 1 of ‘Poetry’ edited by Niranjan Mohanty. In these three volumes were poems by some of the early poets in Indian writing in English such as Pritish Nandy, Nissim Ezekiel, Jayanta Mahapatra, Sitakanta Mohapatra, Shiv K. Kumar and many new names I haven’t heard before.

These three fragile volumes are perhaps reminders of how seriously poetry was taken in those times. I felt glad I found these books and these add to the collections of verse that I am unconsciously collecting these days.

A Midweek Haul

Sometime last week bored with the routine at the office I decided to take the day off and so stayed at home. I had some errands to run such as closing my bank account in United Bank of India and opening a new account in HDFC bank. I accomplished these tasks sooner than I thought and had half the day free with nothing to do. Whenever I have time on my hands I spend it in bookstores. I went to the Best Books branch in Lakdikapul after lunch and spent a couple of hours scouring the bookshelves for titles to buy.

To me, or to any true bibliophile, for that matter, there is nothing more exciting than discovering a good book by an author one hasn’t heard of before. Even after nearly twenty years of some serious book hunting during which time I must have bought a couple of thousand of books I have realized there are some Indian writers who wrote in the sixties and seventies that I don’t know about. It was only a while ago that I learnt about Arun Joshi from a newspaper article by Aditya Sudarshan. There are many more writers, who were, incidentally, published by Orient Paperbacks. I discovered one such writer.

When I saw ‘I Come As A Thief’ by Manoje Basu I picked it up. It had that look on the cover I have come to associate with Orient Paperbacks. On the cover it said it was a Sahitya Akademi Award winning novel. When I read the author’s note I discovered that it was an English translation of his Bengali novel ‘Nishikutumba.’ It was serialized in the Bengali weekly ‘Desh’ and had caused quite an uproar. I was glad I found this book.

I thought I was lucky when I found ‘I Come As A Thief’ by Manoje Basu but more was waiting for me. Underneath this title stacked in a heap I found a book I had been looking for since a long time. Though I had picked up a few copies of ‘The Apprentice’ by Arun Joshi my heart was set on finding the first edition. Last week I found it and was I thrilled to lay my hands on the beautiful copy. ‘The Apprentice’ by Arun Joshi was published by Orient Paperback in 1974. The typesetting was so quaint I was amused. The copy I found was in good condition and seemed to have belonged to one ‘Madana Mohan Mahapatra’ of Jeypore, Odisha whose stamp was on one of the pages.

Sometime back I had randomly picked up ‘The Wycherly Woman’ by Ross Macdonald in this same store. After I finished reading it I resolved to read all the titles by this writer. Back then I did not know that he was one of the ‘Holy Trinity of American Writers’ along with Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. So when I came across three more titles by him I just grabbed them. I found ‘The Galton Case,’ ‘Trouble Follows Me,’ and ‘The Goodbye Look’ all by Ross Macdonald. I was more than thrilled to find these three books and am looking forward to start reading them.

However, this midweek haul set me back by four hundred rupees. I did not mind it since I had found some rare copies of books by two virtually unknown ( to me) Indian writers. With this haul of five books the total haul during this year goes up to eighty one books.

The Sunday Haul (on 31-05-2015)

Last Sunday it was the final Sunday of May. Another week and the monsoon would begin and hopefully, would bring rain that everyone seemed to be eagerly waiting for. I did not mind if the rain disrupted my visits to Abids on Sunday because I think the farmers need rain more than I need books. So last Sunday it was hot but not as hot as it had been the previous Sundays. Since I didn’t have to go to the office or didn’t have anything to do that kept me away from Abids I browsed to my heart’s content.

The first title I found was ‘Mist’ and ‘Creature of Darkness’ by MT Vasudevan Nair, another favorite writer of mine. It was a slim volume and in quite good condition. I hope to read the two novellas in this title sometime soon. Somehow I want to read more of Indian writing and finding this title is making me restless to read this famed writer at the earliest. By the way, I got this book for only twenty rupees.

Actually, the first find was a book I found in a heap with a seller in the lane where I park my bike. So far I have stayed clear of books for Eric Ambler and haven’t read anything by him. However, I have his autobiography ‘Here Lies Eric Ambler’ at home but I haven’t read it yet. I found ‘Cause for Alarm’ on the cover of which was Graham Greene’s statement about Ambler being ‘our greatest thriller writer.’ This praise was enough to make me buy this title. I got this book too for twenty rupees.

Later, in another heap of books selling for thirty rupees, I saw a book in a condition that would have put me off buying it. There were termite holes on the hardcover that ran all the way to the last page on the back. Normally I don’t even look at such copies but this was a different book. It was ‘Bright Book of Life; American Novelists and Storyteller from Hemingway to Mailer’ by Alfred Kazin. I don’t let go of books like this so despite its condition I bought this book hoping to know more how Hemingway, Mailer, and other American novelists worked on their craft. By the way, the title is taken from an interesting observation DH Lawrence made in an essay (?) titled ‘Why the Novel Matters’ and the observation is this:
‘And being a novelist, I consider myself superior to the saint, the scientist, the philosopher, and the poet, who are all great masters of different bits of man alive, but never get the whole hog.
The novel is the one bright book of life.’

The final find was another interesting book. I found ‘Childhood Days’ by Satyajit Ray, the great man himself. Obviously it was a memoir and I was delighted to find this Penguin title in good condition. The seller asked for forty rupees for it which I paid without bargaining because I don’t come across these kinds of titles too often.