Eleven Years of the Blog and The Sunday Haul (on 29-07-2018)

I am dimly aware of why I keep buying books week after week but I am finding it a bit difficult to understand why I am keeping this blog going. I don’t really relish the idea of writing the posts here as regularly as I am doing so it is not that I love to write and I also am not looking to be famous or popular with this blog. But I’ve managed to keep this blog going for eleven long years somehow. I have no idea of how long the blog will last but right now I am thinking of a short break of a couple of weeks.

Books published in the fifties and sixties hold a special attraction for me, more so if it is a crime fiction title. More than what it inside it is the cover that gets me. Last Sunday at Abids I came across a slim book in a heap with an attractive cover. I picked it up and the title on the cover was ‘Murder Me for Nickels’ by Peter Rabe. It was published in May, 1960 by Gold Medal Books in USA. I got it for just twenty rupees. This was the only title in last Sunday’s haul.

The Sunday Haul (on 24-07-18)

I came across many crime writers (like Jake Arnott, Ross Thomas, Peter Blauner ) at Abids by pure accident. I liken such finds to finding a gem in the dust. Last Sunday I found one such gem at Abids but I did not know it then that it was a gem. When I saw ‘No Beast So Fierce’ by Edward Bunker I had a hunch that it could be a good book and even the blurb on the cover about it being made into a film starring Dustin Hoffman confirmed my hunch. So I picked it up for a mere thirty rupees. Later when I Googled the title I was intrigued by Edward Bunker’s background. Edward Bunker took to crime at a very young age, went to jail, wrote a book, became famous and wrote scripts, acted and produced movies. This I plan to read right after finishing Ross Thomas’ ‘Out on the Rim’ that I am engrossed in at the moment.

I found yet another book on writing-‘The Modes of Modern Writing’ by David Lodge. It is an academic tome that discusses things I’ve never heard before like ‘metonymy’ and has sentences like this-‘the poetic function projects the principle of equivalence from the axis of selection into the axis of combination’- that left me reeling. Nevertheless I bought it- for a hundred rupees. It looks impressive to have titles like this in one’s bookshelf.

There’s this pile of Rs 30 books that the Best Books people have in the lane beside Dayal’s that is beginning to throw up many good titles. The previous Sunday I had picked up ‘Mirror Maker’ by Primo Levi and ‘Mildred Pierce’ by James M. Cain from this same pile. Last Sunday I found another wonderful title in that pile. As soon as I spotted the copy of ‘The Emigrants’ by W.G. Sebald I jumped on it. Anything I write about this book would seem insignificant so I will just mention that it seems to be fictional accounts of four people-Dr. Henry Selwyn, Paul Bereyter, Ambros Adelwarth, Max Ferber.

This was one Sunday when all my Abids friends- Uma, Daniel and Jai seemed to come together. Though Jai did not spend much time with us, we three talked for a long time about our usual topics over chai. It just seemed like one of those old days of the past when all was well with the world.

The Sunday Haul (on 15-7-2018)

Though the weather forecast said it would rain heavily on Sunday it didn’t! But the sky was overcast and looked like it would rain any moment but mercifully while we were out at Abids not a drop fell from the sky. It wasn’t rain that I was worried if the copy of ‘A Whole Life’ by Robert Seethaller that I had seen the previous Sunday and not bought was there or not. But before I could reach that seller I spotted another interesting title with another seller right in the lane where I park my two-wheeler. It was a copy of ‘Out on the Rim’ by Ross Thomas that I saw in a pile of ‘Rs 20 only’ books. I would have picked up anything by Ross Thomas and this copy had a blurb by Elmore Leonard on the back cover saying: ‘ A stunning array of characters working a plot that twists and slithers, never stops.’ I read the first chapter later after I got home and now I am trying to make time to read this book as soon as I can.

'Out on the Rim' was the first title I picked up at Abids last Sunday before finding ‘A Whole Life’ by Robert Seethaller that I managed to buy at the price I wanted to pay- hundred rupees. I felt glad that no one had picked it up in the meanwhile and I got to bought it. As it says on the cover it had been long listed for the Man Booker and surprisingly it was less than a hundred and fifty pages long.

The next find was ‘Mildred Pierce’ by James M. Cain. I already have a copy of this title that I had bought a couple of years ago. But this was a very good copy almost new and coming cheap at thirty rupees only. In fact this was one of the three books I picked up from a heap selling for thirty rupees only.

The second book was ‘The Mirror Maker’ by Primo Levi. It is a collection of Stories and Essays translated from the Italian by Raymond Rosenthal. The stories in it are: The Interview; They Were Made to Be Together; The Great Mutation; The Two Flags; Five Intimate Interviews; The Mirror Maker; Through the Walls; The Ant’s Wedding; Force Majeure; A Mystery in the Lager; Time Checkmated; The Tommy-gun Under the Bed
The Essays in it are: A Valley; The Commander of Auschwitz; The Moon and Man; Sic!; Our Dreams; The Struggle for Life; Spears Become Shields; Translating Kafka; Rhyming on the Counterattack; Dear Horace; Bacteria Roulette; Among the Peaks of Manhattan; The Wine of the Borgias; Reproducing Miracles; The Man Who Flies; About Gossip; Jack London’s Buck; Adam’s Clay; The Spider’s Secret; The Dispute among German Historians; Defiance in the Ghetto; Hatching the Cobra.

The Sunday Haul (on 8-7-2018)

Everything was normal at Abids last Sunday. The previous Sunday there were no books on the pavements because the overzealous traffic cops had not allowed the sellers to set shop because some hotshot VIP was passing through. The weather was fine and I had a friend along to browse with. I picked up two books and missed buying a title that I later felt I should have bought. I had seen a good copy of ‘A Whole Life’ by Robert Seethaler but the seller quoted a high price for it which deterred me from buying it. I hope no one’s bought it because next Sunday I am going for it.

One of the books I picked up last Sunday was ‘Word Watching’ by Julian Burnside that I got for eighty rupees. It is an interesting book with thirty nine essays about, what else, words. Another book I bought just for the cover. It was ‘The Best of Indian Cooking’ published by Bay Books that I got for only thirty rupees.

These were the only finds at Abids last Sunday. Even as I write this post sitting in front of the television watching the news the forecast for tomorrow (Sunday) is for heavy rain in Telangana. Outside it has already started raining and it looks like it is going to be a wet weekend ruining my weekly visit to Abids.

The Sunday Haul (on 1-7-2018)

The trip to Nainital kept me away from Abids for two consecutive Sundays so I was more than eager to return to my familiar Sunday morning haunts. But I found my enthusiasm doused by the over action of the traffic policemen who did not allow anything to be set up on the pavements. As a result there weren’t many books on the pavements at Abids last Sunday. It was only in the few lanes and nooks that the book sellers could safely spread their wares on the pavements. It was at one such seller in a lane that I came across a brand new book that was small in size as well as compact. It was a copy of ‘College’ by Saikat Majumdar that I got for just thirty rupees.

Then in another pile of books selling for twenty rupees I found two crime fiction titles. I had been seeing books by Alan Williams since a long time and though the covers looked like there could be a good novel inside somehow I did not buy them. But last Sunday when I saw ‘The Purity Leagues’ by Alan Williams I picked it up along with ‘False Flags’ by Noel Hynd.

The best of the Sunday haul was at Chikkadpally on the way home from Abids. With each title by an Indian writer that I read my interest in Indian literature especially Indian English literature grows. I have a few titles about Indian literature but nothing that gives me a full picture. I wasn’t really looking for something that would give a full picture of Indian Literature in English since I wasn’t aware there was anything like that. So when I saw ‘An Illustrated History of Indian Literature in English’ edited by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra with a seller at Chikkadpally I was dumbstruck. This title I found quite by chance is a real treasure though I had to shell out two hundred rupees for it. There is so much interesting in this book, about a page on Arun Joshi, that ‘All About Mr Hatterr preceded All About H.Hatterr’ and plenty of illustrations and photographs. It is filled with so much about Indian English writers that it needs a separate post. Along with this title I found the classic ‘Notes of a Native Son’ by James Baldwin that the seller threw in for free with ‘An Ilustrated History…’ !

The Sunday Haul @ Darya Gunj

On Sundays especially, wherever I am, I like to go looking for books and bookstores. It is what I do on Sundays in Hyderabad where I live. The Sunday before this I was in Delhi on way to Nainital to attend a training course. After a quick breakfast at Telangana Bhavan where I was staying I left for Darya Ganj in order to be there by half past nine. I had been to Darya Ganj so long ago in the past that I had forgotten what it looked like. Of course, I was bursting with eager anticipation about what I would find at this market that I had read so much about.

Within the first minute I spotted a great title. A little explosion of delight went off inside me when my eyes read the title of the very first book I saw at Darya Ganj. It was a copy of ‘The War Against Cliché’ by Martin Amis that was on the top of a heap of books selling for fifty rupees only. Holding the book in my hands I couldn’t believe my luck at finding this title that I had read about long, long back when I was just starting off book collecting. This find was a real treasure because when I looked at the contents page I noticed that there was a piece on Elmore Leonard!

The next finds came soon enough with another seller. I found a good copy of ‘Everywhere I Look’ by Helen Garner whose ‘Monkey Fever’ I had picked up on a hunch and had read only to become a fan of Helen Garner’s writing. ‘Everywhere I Look’ is my second Helen Garner title and I am terribly pleased I found this collections of essays by her.

Immediately beside it was a copy of ‘Our Story Begins’ by Tobias Wolff that I hesitated to buy. I had set myself a limit of only three books to buy and if I found better books then what? So I decided to buy it later if I did not find better titles. However, when I saw a hardcover copy of ‘My Father’s Friend and Other Stories’ by Ashokamitran I was tempted to buy it. Ashokamitran’s style never fails to enthral me with its simplicity and lucidity so I did not hesitate before buying it for a hundred rupees.

The next find with another seller was a good copy of ‘Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society’ by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer that I had read somewhere was connected with books. This got me interested in the book and so I picked up this title too. It did not come cheap at hundred rupees. I bought this book in place of Anne Lamott’s ‘Bird by Bird’ that was right next to it and that I now think I should have also bought though I have two copies of this title at home. Later I went back and picked up the Tobias Wolff title.

After that five book haul at Darya Ganj on Sunday morning I thought I wouldn’t find any more books since I had not only exceeded my limit of two books but I wasn’t going anywhere near books for some time. However, later in the evening I strolled across to Connaught Place to gawk, and I stumbled across a book seller I had tried to locate on an earlier visit to Delhi sometime last year. I spotted ‘Anil Book Corner’ below a large bright board of ‘Tonino’ that I guessed could be another fancy eating joint. I saw a copy of Arun Joshi’s ‘The Apprentice’ that I was tempted to buy but when I saw a copy of ‘Brother, I’m Dying’ by Edwidge Danticat I gave up the idea and bought Danticat’s book instead. Sometime last year I had come across an Edwidge Danticat title at Abids that I foolishly believed would be around the next Sunday and did not buy it right away. When I went to look for the next Sunday it wasn’t, obviously, there and which made me feel like jumping into a well had there been one at Abids.

One day while wandering around the main roads of Nainital sometime last week I came across a bookstore whose name I am not able to recollect now. I went inside and saw a few Hindi titles that I looked at closely. I became suddenly excited when I saw a copy of ‘Kitne Pakistan’ by Kamleshwar which was a title I had jotted down after reading about it somewhere. I also saw the original Hindi version of ‘Raag Darbari’ by Shrilal Shukla. I was torn between these two title- which to buy? Obviously I couldn’t buy both of them though I wanted to. I had read the English version of ‘Raag Darbari’ and since it had been my plan to read it in Hindi I opted for ‘Raag Darbari’ and left behind ‘Kitne Pakistan’ promising myself that I would buy it when I come across it again.

A Midweek Haul

The Friday before last it had started to drizzle while I was on my way home. Since I ride a two wheeler I decided to stop somewhere until the rain stopped. I was a little away from a new store that the MR Books had opened in the Nagarjuna circle in Punjagutta in Hyderabad. I stopped there with the plan to browse until it stopped raining. There I found a book which was a sort of sequel to a title I had already read.

On New Year’s day last year I had picked up a copy of ‘The Spiral Staircase’ by Karen Armstrong at Abids. A couple of weeks later I read it and found Karen Armstrong’s account of her experiences as a nun and as an ex-nun. After finishing reading ‘The Spiral Staircase’ I wished I could also read the first part of her memoir- Through the Narrow Gate. I’m lucky in that sooner or later I always find the book I want to read. I felt glad spotting ‘Through the Narrow Gate’ at the MR Bookstore and bought it for a hundred rupees which isn’t much. I planned to read it on the plane journey to Delhi en route to Nainital for a training course I was told to attend.

The Sunday Haul (on 10-06-2018)

Last Sunday's visit to Abids resulted in a haul of three wonderful titles. These are the titles in the haul:

The Sunday Haul (on 3rd June, 2018)

I already possess a nice copy of ‘The Serpent and the Rope’ by Raja Rao that I found recently but when I saw another good copy at Abids on Sunday I couldn’t resist picking it up. There is something about the covers of these 1960’s titles that makes it impossible to ignore them and leave them behind. I haven’t yet read the book but I hope to read it soon. I got this nice copy for thirty rupees only.

Not very long ago I had seen a couple of hefty volumes with a seller that on close scrutiny turned out to be the entire series of ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ by Kalki-. The volumes were so intimidating in their size that I did not dare to buy them because I may not have the time to read all of them. Later I realized that I had committed an enormous blunder not buying all the five volumes of’ Ponniyin Selvan’ When I saw a lone volume in the series-‘Cyclone’ , the second in the series I bought it. I wish I could find all the remaining titles in the series. I bought ‘Cyclone’ for forty rupees.

The Sunday Haul (on 27-5-2018)

The first thing I saw at Abids last Sunday made my heart leap with joy. There were more than two dozen issues of Indian Literature in two stacks with a seller. I sat down and looked at each and every issue carefully searching for some name that would catch my eye. I was looking for stories by Arun Joshi or something interesting in those well preserved books. I wished I could buy all of them but I knew it wasn’t possible. Finally I found an issue with an interesting title on the cover- Men and Books by Adoor Gopalakrishnan. I picked up the May-June 2003 Issue 215 and looked at some of the contents. The issue had a tribute to Sisir Kumar Das, described as the ‘greatest scholar of Indian Literature’ which was something I was not aware of. Then there were the usual book reviews, poems (one by a Telugu poet- Mandrapu Hymavathy), stories, essays, and also literary criticism. I have it on my table at the office and will go through it piece by piece whenever I find time.

A couple of months earlier I had come across a Margery Allingham title but I gave it a miss because it did not appear interesting enough. A few weeks after that I read in a book that listed the 100 great crime novels that Margery Allingham was one crime writer not to be missed. Though I do not remember now which Margery Allingham title was listed in that book I did remember the name of the author. So when I saw a copy of ‘Coroner’s Pidgin’ by Margery Allingham with the same seller from whom I had bought the copy of Indian Literature.
I got both these titles for eighty rupees only.