The Sunday Haul

One reason why I was desperate to visit Chennai was to get a couple of my fountain pens fitted with Sheaffer nibs at Gem & Co in Chennai. When the opportunity came up sometime in last year for a trip to Chennai I was excited and all raring to go. But due to some reason I was unable to go which increased my longing to go to Chennai at the next available opportunity. When I read about the Lit for Life fest at Chennai in the second week of this month I began planning in great detail which I never usually do- listing out things to do, people to meet, things to buy and so on. I had also booked the tickets and also applied for leave. It was just a matter of waiting for the day when I would board the train. Then disaster stuck, literally. The day before I was to leave, a severe hailstorm struck many parts of the state bringing heavy rains that killed eighteen people besides causing a lot of damage. Naturally, however much I desperately wanted to get Sheaffer nibs fitted on my fountain pens and also attend the Lit for Life festival at Chennai, I had to put aside such wishes for a while and stay back to do what little I could do to take stock of the situation. Maybe I will go next year.



Anyway, thanks to the untimely natural calamity, not only did I not go to Chennai; I had to go to the office on Sunday. Going to the office on a Sunday isn’t exactly unusual to me considering the nature of the work which our Department does so I went without a murmur. The only saving grace was that I got to go to Abids in the morning which is something I rarely miss. At Abids the first find was Susan Isaacs’ ‘Shining Through’ that I got for thirty rupees. I have a copy of this book and have already read this extremely funny book which I want to give to one of my friends. It was a good copy that I found so whoever gets it from me will not have reason to gripe.



The second find was a crime fiction title by a new author I haven’t read about before. Of late I am stumbling upon some very good books by new authors almost by accident. I found books by Sarah Dunant, Hary Dolan and Jake Arnott in this manner and on Sunday I spotted a new name on a book- Andrew Vachss. In a pile of crime fiction titles I found ‘Dead and Gone’ by Andrew Vachss and picked it up on a hunch that it looked like something that might be a good read. I got the book for fifty rupees and later when I browsed on the net I was pleasantly surprised that Vachss was a bestselling crime writer so naturally I am very interested in reading about his charecter- Burke.

The Sunday Haul

After the super haul of six books last week preceded by another good haul the previous Sunday, my collection of books that I have to read has reached impossible proportions. I told myself (and also some of my friends) that I would not buy any more books until I have finished reading at least half of the books in my pile. But such decisions are hard to give effect to especially in cities like Hyderabad where there are several second hand book stores and where there’s a thriving second hand book market every Sunday where the likes of me throng come what may. This Sunday despite my avowals not to buy any books, I ended up buying two more.



One of the best finds at the Best Books sale the previous Sunday had been a collection of short stories by a writer I had not heard about earlier. I had bought Alistair MacLeod’s ‘Islands’ after I saw the haunting picture on the cover and my hunch about the book being a good find was right after the reviews on the net said the same. Somewhere in the book I had read about his other collection of short stories- The Lost Salt Gift of Blood- that too seemed to be a wonderful book. On Sunday within minutes of parking my bike I saw this book at a spot where I usually look at the titles quite closely. I wonder how I had missed seeing this title earlier. Maybe because it was small and slim, which is one reason why I got the book for only ten rupees. ‘Lost Salt Gift of Blood’ contains seven short stories- In the Fall, The Vastness of the Dark, The Lost Salt Gift of Blood, The Return, The Golden Gift of Grey, The Boat, The Road to Rankin’s Point, and as a bonus it also has an afterword by Joyce Carol Oates, another master story teller.



The other find of Sunday was a book by Ashokamitran. A couple of years ago I had come across ‘A Most Truthful Picture’ by Ashokamitran at a second hand book store and I had let the book go because of the price. After a few weeks when I went again the book was missing and I regretted not buying the book then. So when I came across a nice, hardcover copy of ‘A Most Truthful Picture and Other Stories’ with twenty five stories in it I picked it up. It cost me only thirty rupees. I have read his other books- The Eighteenth Parallel and also ‘Mole’ and found them to be hugely entertaining. I am extremely glad I found these two books that I think will not take much time to finish reading.

‘Who Let the Dork Out’ by Sidin Vadukut- A Review

If there’s any writer who has written book after funny book that makes one laugh aloud then it is Dave Barry for me. Until recently there was no Indian writer who wrote such books until Sidin Vadukut came along with his ‘Dork’ trilogy. From what humor books I’ve read some writers line funny lines, some writers create funny characters and some writers create funny situations. But so far I haven’t read any book with funny characters in funny situations uttering funny lines all through until I read the first Sidin Vadukut book. In his very first book itself Vadukut revealed his comic genius creating the Robin ‘Einstein’ Varghese character who is one of the goofiest characters I’ve read so far.

Like the first and the second ‘Dork’ titles the latest in the ‘Dork’ trilogy ‘Who Let the Dork Out’ is also outrageously funny beginning with the title. The jokes in it fly in it like bullets in a machine gun, one after the other, leaving you breathless with laughter. ‘Who Let the Dork Out’ is another caper of Eistein told to us in the dairy format. This is a real masterstroke the way Einstein makes his entries in the diary. The merest hint of something makes one break into loud laughter, like bringing up the name of Raveena Tandon, Anushka Sharma, Joy Alukkas and so on.

The first paragraph of the book begins with a bang, with a fantastic joke, and from then on the jokes take the reader on a hilarious journey into a crazy caper. The casual manner in which Einstein utters his lines or expresses his thoughts aloud is simply inimitable. In 'Who Let the Dork Out' Lederman's Einstein gets into the business of managing things for the 'Allied Victory Games 2010' on behalf of the Govt of India. There's the usual cast- Gauri, Sugandh, his bosses mixed with more new characters like Kedarji, Bala, Joyyonto, Jesal and of course, Colonel Kalbag to give the readers a heady dose of original funny stuff that'll split your sides if you don't pause in between chapters.

A single and casual mention of some famous names like Jhumpa Lahiri, Prince Charles, Subhas Chandra Bose and the way he takes potshots at all Bengalis and also Malayalis, his constant references to China is all very hilarious. It is all so original and funny you can read the book any number of times and laugh like you did the first time you read it. Sidin Vadukut's 'Who Let the Dork Out' is 252 pages of pure hilarity.

The Super Haul

It was too good to be true and also hard to believe, at first. There was this book I had been waiting to find since the past few years and had lost all hopes of ever finding it since it was sort of rare. But there it was, right before my eyes, waiting to be picked up. I was at the sale of books by Best Books at YMCA in Secunderabad on Monday, the same day I had read about it in the papers. I unhesitatingly picked up WG Sebald’s ‘The Rings of Saturn’ which is one of the ten odd books listed as travel classics in Lonely Planet Travel Writing. Anyway, I put aside a book of short stories- ‘Island’ by Alastair MaCLeod that I had planned to buy and instead picked up ‘The Rings of Saturn.’ I had also found two titles by Raymond Chandler ‘The Big Sleep’ and ‘The Little Sister’ as well as another title that I was looking for- Cormac McCarthy’s ‘Blood Meridian.’ Also on the shelves were many other titles I wanted to buy but couldn’t due to budget problems. Adding to the excitement was the fact that I had also spotted Tom Wolfe’s ‘The New Journalism’ that Uma was looking for since god knows how long. I was eager to go back home and go through the find. But when I got home I realized my mistake.

When I opened ‘The Rings of Saturn’ I saw that the book began from page five which meant that the first four pages were missing! I was crestfallen and almost heartbroken about the discovery because I can never find another copy of the book. But luckily on Amazon I saw that what was missing was just two pages of the first chapter which I typed out. I plan to print these paragraphs out and paste in my copy so it could be complete in some way. When I checked the reviews of Alistair MacLeod’s ‘Islands’ I saw that it was a book not to be missed so I went back the next day and picked up the hardcover jacketed copy. While at it I also picked up James Cameron’s ‘An Indian Summer’ that I had failed to buy on an earlier occasion years ago. In all, in just two days I had bought six books not counting Jan Morris’ ‘Conundrum’ that I found at Abids on Sunday.

Earlier in the week on Sunday we had scoured the pavements at Abids but did not find anything worth finding until it was time for me to leave. At that moment I spotted ‘Conundrum’ by Jan Morris and bought it for fifty rupees. ‘Conundrum’ is an account of the gender change process that Jan Morris underwent. How James Morris became Jan Morris might be interesting to read. However I did not feel guilty that I had bought so many books. I would consider them as gifts for myself on my fiftieth birthday that falls on Wednesday. There’s nothing like good books to cheer one up on such a momentous occasion.

Last Sunday brought with it ‘The Literary Review’ in The Hindu with interviews of Mridula Koshy and also Benyamin. There was the announcement of Lit for Life that begins sometime next week in Chennai. The curtain raiser at Delhi had already begun and yesterday (Thursday) the titles on the short list for the Fiction Prize were revealed. There was a writer I had not known about till now- Easterine Kire but I think Anjum Hasan might win for ‘Difficult Pleasures’ or maybe Jeet Thayil for ‘Narcopolis.’ It could be someone else ultimately. Anyway I am seriously planning to go to Chennai to attend the Lit Fest provided everything goes right. Inside the Literary Review there was the detailed schedule for the two days. I read that Sidin Vadukut would be coming so would be Pradeep Sebastian, Jerry Pinto, Nilanjana S. Roy, Timeri N. Murari and others who it might be a delight to see in person.

The Sunday Haul

In the past few months my collection of books of short stories grew at a rapid pace. A couple of months ago I had found Somerset Maugham’s ‘The Human Element and Other Stories’ at a sale and later I found Daniyal Mueenuddin’s ‘In Other Rooms, Other Wonders’ at Chikkadpally sometime in September. It was followed by Saadat Hasan Manto’s ‘Kingdom’s End and Other Stories’ that I found at Abids in October. Then at the Book Fair in December I found Jorge Luis Borges’ ‘Doctor Brodie’s Report’ and got it quite cheap, by the way.

The previous Sunday I had found John Updike’s ‘Problems and Other Stories’ at Chikkadpally and the same day I got ‘Collected Stories’ by Saul Bellow as a present. I have a shelf-full of short story collections like Marquez’s ‘Collected Stories,’ Ernest Hemingway’s ‘First Forty Nine Stories’ MT Vasudevan Nair’s ‘Catching an Elephant and Other Stories,’ Annie Proulx’s ‘Close Range,’ Saadat Hasan Manto’s ‘Black Margins,’ Alice Munro’s ‘The Moons of Jupiter’ and also ‘Dance of the Happy Shades’, Peter Taylor’s ‘The Old Forest and Other Stories,’ Haruki Murakami’s ‘’ David Leavitt’s ‘A Place I’ve Never Been,’ Penelope Lively’s ‘Beyond the Blue Mountains’ and ‘Pack of Cards,’ and many other titles that I cannot recollect right away.

Last Sunday I found another collection of short stories by an Australian writer. I haven’t read many books by Australian writers except ‘Oscar and Lucinda’ by Peter Carey a along time back and Helen Garner’s ‘Monkey Grip’ recently. The book I found last Sunday was Jessica Andersen’s ‘Stories from the Warm Zone and Sydney Stories’ that I found in a heap of books selling for thirty rupees only at Abids. One of the reasons I picked up the book was that it was a Penguin imprint. ‘Stories from the Warm Zone and Sydney Stories’ has eight stories ‘Under the House’, ‘The Appearance of Things,’ ‘Against the Wall, The Way to Budgerra Heights, The Aviator in ‘Stories from the Warm Zone’ and The Milk, The Late Sunlight and Outdoor Friends in ‘Sydney Stories.’

The second book in Sunday’s Haul was ‘Love, Chocolates & Medicine’ by Dr. Ravi Sekhar Krishna who gave it to me personally when we met on Saturday afternoon at Minerva. Dr. Ravi, a young doctor pursuing his post-graduation in General Surgery told me how he came to write his first book which was published by Zorba Publishers. He has already finished writing his second novel and is working on the third novel. Hardly half my age, the young writer has written almost three novels in a very short time and here I am still struggling with my first novel since the past eight years and clueless about how to finish it. Some guys have all the luck.

Yesterday, that is, Thursday I read a marvelous review of ‘A House by the Shore’ by Alison Johnson by Aparna Karthikeyan in her column ‘The Armchair Traveller’ in The Hindu Metro Plus. After reading the review I added the title to my ‘To Buy’ list that includes several other books. In fact I cut the review and have kept it in a folder. I hope one of these days she writes about Moritz Thomsen’s ‘The Saddest Pleasure’ that I have with me lying unread for some reason.

At the Hyd Lit Fest

For the second year running I’ve managed to attend the HLF that seems to be moving further away from the city. The first year the venue was the OU, last year it was Taramati Baradari almost on the outskirts and this year it was MANUU which is miles away from anywhere. This must have been one of the reasons why there were thin crowds at the HLF on the two days I went. Due to work and a major function that I had to attend I missed the first day of HLF and thereby missed Hari in conversation with Anita Nair.

In a session on Saturday in the morning Narendra Luther, the grand old chronicler of Deccan regaled the audience with some interesting anecdotes about the erstwhile rulers of Hyderabad. In another event that followed I got to learn about some fascinating tales about and from the Ramayana from Paula Richman. After lunch I was in a session where Mridula Koshy read from her latest novel ‘Not Only The Things That Have Happened’ that I planned to buy and get it signed by her. However, I couldn’t gather the nerve to approach her so I gave up the idea. Sometime soon I will buy the book and read it since I have liked the stories in her collection ‘If It is Sweet.’ Next event I sat through was about movies and the media where Krishna Devulapally (Ice Boys in Bell Bottoms) was on the panel. His second book ’Rally Days and Disco Nights’ would be out soon and I am looking forward to it since I enjoyed the humor in IBBB.

On Sunday morning giving my Abids trip a miss I went by bus to MANUU and by the time I reached Anvar Ali Khan had already started his conversation with Vinod Mehta. The editor held forth on the media, politicians and others in his inimitable style that drew a lot of chuckles and also applause. Then there was the discussion on media after lunch where Dinesh D’Souza, Gunjan Veda and Aarthi Ramchandran talked about Bharat/India and whether there really was any such differentiation. They were all creative people, articulate and very inspiring except for two writers that I won’t name here who were very pushy and sort of off-putting with their screechy and shrill talk.


On the whole it was an enjoyable event and made me think of going to Chennai for the Lit for Life event sometime in the third week of February.

Sunday Super Haul

A couple of times in the past there have been days when all I found were books, books and only books. I remember a day in the late 90’s when I returned from Abids with about a dozen books in hand. More recently I found half a dozen good books all at Abids. Last Sunday also my life was flooded with books,six books in all - two at Abids, three given by Hari and one that I found at a book store.

Sunday morning turned out to be a pleasant one, mildly sunny and permeated with a festive atmosphere because of Sankranthi. We (me, Uma and Shrikant) gathered at our usual Irani for a cup of chai and talk about books before setting out to find more books as if we do not have enough already. After nearly two hours of browsing I picked up only one book- Scott M. Peck’s ‘The Road Less Travelled’ that I have decided to read this year after coming across it too often in several places. However, the second find was at Chikkadpalli while I was returning home. At one of the sellers in Chikkadpally I saw ‘Problems and Other Stories’ by John Updike. The book was in good condition and has twenty three stories- Commercial, Minutes of the Last Meeting, The Gun Shop, How to Love America and Leave It at the Same Time, Nevada, Son, Daughter, Last Glimpses of Ethiopia, Transaction, Separating, Agustine’s Concubine, The Man Who Loved Extinct Mammals, Problems, Domestic Life in America, Love Song, for a Moog Synthesizer, From the Journal of a Leper, Here Come the Maples, The Fairy Godfathers, The Faint, The Egg Race, Guilt Gems, and Atlantises. But the book did not come cheap. I paid fifty rupees which I think is worth it.

In the evening I met Hari at Minerva for coffee and a long overdue chat. He gave me two books on writing that were once the property of our common friend J.R. Jyoti, an indefatigable writer and a gentlemen who passed away sometime back. His son Sunil Jyoti kindly let us have dozens of writing books and magazines that formed a minuscule part of the thousands of books owned by Jyoti sir. While Hari went for the books on writing I picked up old issues of Writer’s Digest. Afterwards we ambled to Landmark where there was an offer of three books for the price of two. Hari wanted to buy titles that he wanted to read and made use of the offer by buying two books for himself and the third for me which was quite generous of him considering the fact that the price was Rs 299. That was how I got Saul Bellow’s ‘Collected Stories’ as my fifth book of the day. ‘Collected Stories’ has thirteen stories- By the St. Lawrence, A Silver Dish, The Bellarosa Connection, The Old System, A Theft, Looking for Mr. Green, Cousins, Zetland, By a Character Witness, Leaving the Yellow House, What Kind of Day Did You Have/, Mosby’s Memoirs, Him with His Foot in His Mouth, Something to Remember Me By.

Later I happened to drop in at Himalaya Book Stores near the Punjagutta flyover to buy a Mathematics textbook for my son. I happened to notice a collection of books on a shelf that were for sale at a discount. Nestled in the middle of a stack at the bottom of the shelf was Robert. B. Parker’s ‘Small Vices’ that I pulled out eagerly. I was glad to see that it was a Spenser title and was a hardcover edition though not in pristine condition. The jacket was torn but otherwise it was okay. I was in a dilemma for a second- to buy it or not because after discount the price came to Rs 180. Needless to say, I bought it.

The New Year;'s Haul, HLF and The Literary Review

The New Year Haul
It would probably be impossible or very difficult for me to finish reading the 300 + books lying around in my house in the near future unless I stop buying books every week and adding to the pile. If I were younger I’d not have felt any anxiety but since I’ll be touching 50 soon I do not think I can spare much time reading books. Hence I plan to read only those books that must be read. Afraid that I’d pick up more books if I go to Abids, last Sunday I almost did not go. However, I went not wishing to miss the Abids trip on the first Sunday of the New Year.

Though I had resolved that if at all I had to buy I’d buy just one book. I bought just one book that I got for only fifty rupees. I like to read good crime fiction and have books by Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Elmore Leonard, Robert B. Parker, Jo Nesbo, and other writers. However, I have not made any special efforts to learn about other writers who might be writing equally good books. Somewhere I had seen the name ‘James Ellroy’ but did not buy any book though I came across a few titles of his. Last Sunday I found ‘The Big Nowhere’ by James Ellroy that I felt I had to buy especially after I read the blurb on the front cover that reads ‘One of the Great American Writers of our time’ by LA Times Book Review. It was a good copy but too lengthy for my taste with nearly four hundred pages. It was mine for fifty rupees only.

Hyderabad Literary Festival & The Literary Review
It is in the news that the Hyderabad Literary Festival would be held from January 18 to 20 at MANUU which is somewhere very far away. I had been to last year’s event at Taramati Baradari with Hari and had an interesting time. However it looks like I may not be able to attend this year owing to work. (I’m still No.2.) I am very eager to go this year too since the list of participants has Vinod Mehta, Sekhar Kammula and others. But I have to see how things work out. Maybe I can attend on the last day which happens to be a Sunday. I am keeping my fingers crossed. Though I might miss HLF I do wish to attend ‘The Hindu Lit for Life’ at Chennai sometime in February 2013 that I read about in this month’s “Literary Review’ in The Hindu.

This month’s ‘Literary Review’ had an interview with Jerry Pinto whose articles I like very much. I am thinking of buying his book ‘Em and the Big Hoom’ and read it because it appears to be quite good from what I could gather from the reviews I read in the past. In his column ‘The Creative Writer’ Vikram Kapur bemoans the lack of memorable cricket fiction especially in the country. I do not know if he has heard about Hari’s ‘The Men Within’ which is a novel based entirely on cricket and also made into a Telugu movie ‘Golkonda High School’ that was also good.

Another interesting piece of news was about the ‘The Hindu Lit for Life’ event in February 2013, half at Delhi and the concluding session in Chennai on 16 and 17th February. I want to attend this event if possible. God knows what will happen by then.

The Sunday Haul- Adding to the 2012 Tally

By the time I posted about the 2012 book haul last Friday I had bought 93 books in all during the year and I did not expect to add anymore to the pile. However, I had not intended to pick up any books at Abids on the last Sunday of the year but merely to browse and return empty handed. In fact I had almost given the Abids trip a miss but there I was at Abids though my two friends couldn’t make it. The last Sunday of the year was no different from the previous ones except that it was a sunny day and bode well for those looking for a good book to take home.

Two minutes into the lonely hunt I came across a book that was in my ‘To Read’ list. I had read a review of ‘One Day’ by David Nicholls somewhere on the net sometime last year that said the book was worth a read. I did not expect to find it. It was quite a surprise to spot the book on top of a heap of books. It was a brand new copy and without any blemish. I got it for forty rupees. The book has also been made into a movie it seems which is another reason to have bought the book. Only thing is I have to find time to read it.

The second find of the Sunday was a copy of the classic, ‘The Snow Leopard’ by Peter Matthiessen, that I have read more than a couple of times ever since I bought it several years ago. It is a timeless book that transports one to a different world. I have two copies of the book but I bought this copy for a friend. Another motivating factor in buying the book was that it was for sale for twenty rupees only. It was a pretty good copy without any fault save a small tear on the cover which isn’t such a big thing when all the pages between the covers are intact and in good condition.

With these two books the 2012 haul goes up to ninety five books which is still far less than what I had bought in the previous couple of years.

Friday Triple Post- Post No. 3- 2012 READING

This is post 3 of 3 posts.

In 2012 I had read less than sixty books, almost all of them extremely good barring a few. This year, somehow I managed to read sixty three books, all of them, save a couple of them, good to the last word. The books I read in the final weeks of the year, particularly the two books by Balraj Khanna, 'Who Let the Dork Out' by Sidin Vadukut that I will review in a future post, I found to be very enjoyable. Balraj Khanna was a serendipitous discovery like many of my earlier discoveries. I am glad I found them on my own without anyone’s help.

1. The Finkler Question - Howard Jacobson
2. Playback - Raymond Chandler
3. Write It Down Make it Happen- Henriette Klause
4. The Summing Up - Somerset Maugham
5. Dave Barry’s Guide to Guys - Dave Barry
6. Everybody Loves a Good Drought - P.Sainath
7. You Can Write a Novel - James V. Smith Jr.
8. Almost French - Sarah Turnbull
9. Ice Boys in Bell Bottoms - Krishna Shastri Devulapalli
10. The Humour and the Pity - Amitava Kumar
11. Anatomy of Restlessness - Bruce Chatwin
12. Widow’s Walk - Robert B. Parker
13. True Crime - Jake Arnott
14. A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush - Eric Newby
15. Anatomy of an Illness - Norman Cousins
16. Balsamic Dreams - Joe Queenan
17. Pastime - Robert B. Parker
18. I’ll Mature When I’m Dead - Dave Barry
19. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
20. The Man Within - Graham Greene
21. The Year of Magical Thinking - Joan Didion
22. Visiting Mrs. Nabokov - Martin Amis
23. Lucknow Boy - Vinod Mehta
24. The Healing Heart - Norman Cousins
25. Collected Essays - Graham Greene

26. Dancing in Cambodia - Amitav Ghosh
27. The Gathering - Anne Enright
28. Mandingo - Kyle Onstott
29. In Light of India - Octavio Paz
30. The Story Teller - Maria Vargas Llosa
31. In Praise of Older Women - Stephen Viznecy
32. Double Deuce - Robert B. Parker
33. The Checklist Manifesto - Atul Gawande
34. Close Range - Annie Proulx
35. Best American Travel Writing Ed Frances Mayes
36. Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bourdain
37. Long Quiet Highway - Natalie Goldberg
38. At Random - Bennett Cerf
39. Birth Marks - Sarah Dunant
40. Sharky’s Machine - William Diehl
41. Slouching Towards Bethlehem - Joan Didion
42. Travels - Michael Crichton
43. The Leopard - Jo Nesbo
44. The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen
45. It All Adds Up - Saul Bellow
46. 84, Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff
47. Literary Journalism
48. The Screenwriter Within - DB Gilles
49. God Save the Child - Robert B. Parker
50. Stephen Fry in America - Stephen Fry

51. Down and Out in Paris and London - George Orwell
52. The Human Element and Other Stories - Somerset Maugham
53. Stet - Diana Athill
54. How to Enjoy Writing - Janet and Isaac Asimov
55. Bad Business - Robert B. Parker
56. On Writing - George V. Higgins
57. Best Food Writing 2007 - Ed. Holly Hughes
58. Monkey Grip - Helen Garner
59. Homage to Catalonia - George Orwell
60. Dave Barry’s Only Travel Guide You’ll Ever Need - Dave Barry
61. Who Let the Dork Out - Sidin Vadukut
62. Nation of Fools - Balraj Khanna
63. Sweet Chillies - Balraj Khanna
64. Particularly Cats- Doris Lessing