The Sunday Haul (on 20-11-2022)

In the two hours that I was at Abids last Sunday before going for a family function I managed to find three nice titles. I have been always interested in Ireland and its writers so when I saw a copy of ‘Jiving at the Crossroads’ by John W

Only a couple of Sundays ago I had found a title ‘Ai Ladki’ by Krishna Sobti that I am yet to read so when I saw another title by her I wondered whether to buy it. But this hesitation did not last two seconds before I picked up the hardcover copy of ‘Sunflowers of the Dark’ by Krishna Sobti for eighty rupees.

I spotted a book with a striking cover and after I picked it up I saw that is was a copy of ‘Ayyankali- A Dalit Leader of Organic Protest’ by M. Nisar & Meena Kandaswamy. I had read a bit about Ayyankali before and bought this book hoping to know more. I got this book for fifty rupees. It is a short book and I want to read it one of these days. 

Since a couple of weeks I had been seeing a copy of ‘Saint Joan of Arc’ by Vita Sackville West, a Penguin title that I wouldn’t hesitate to buy but somehow I felt it was out of my league. However last Sunday I finally picked it up for a hundred rupees.

The Sunday Haul (on 13-11-2022)

 I had been to Abids last Sunday and found these three books. I am posting it today instead of on Friday because I was travelling and did not have the time to write it during the week. Sorry. 

The Sunday Haul (on 06-11-2022)

 Another bright and sunny morning on a pleasant Sunday in Hyderabad when l left home for Abids to look at the thousands of books on the pavements. I had earlier bought a copy of ‘Siddhartha’ by Herman Hesse sometime back but haven’t yet read it for some reason. Last Sunday I saw another copy with a photograph of the two actors Shashi Kapoor and Simi Grewal who played the lead roles in the film, and saw that it was a Macmillan India edition that I had never seen before. I decided to buy it and got it for only thirty rupees. Somebody told me it was a rare cover not easily available but how true it is I do not know.

I saw an almost new copy of ‘More Bodies Will Fall’ by Ankush Saikia, a new title by Ankush Saikia who made his debut as a writer with ‘Jet City Woman’ that I had read a long back. Next week I will be travelling to Ooty on work for four days and maybe I will read it at Ooty. I got it in a pile of books selling for hundred rupees each.

The Sunday Haul (on 30-10-2022)

It was the first Sunday after Diwali so all the regular shops were closed which meant that the second hand booksellers of Abids were at their original places in full strength. I was at Abids as usual and spent about two hours looking at all the wonderful titles on sale on the pavements. I ended up buying only two titles last Sunday at Abids.

The first book was one that had a stunning blue cover that caught my eye. When I picked it up for a closer look it had ‘Joe Gould’s Secret’ by Joseph Mitchell on the cover. There was high praise for it in the blurbs on the back cover by Bill Bryson, Salman Rushdie, Julian Barnes, Doris Lessing, Martin Amis and also Robert McCrum that made me buy the book without thinking twice about the price the seller was asking for it. I got it for a hundred rupees.

The other title that I found was a book that looked very old but in a good condition. It was a copy of ‘Job: The Story of a Simple Man’ by Joseph Roth. Sometime back I had read on Twitter about Joseph Roth about whom I had not heard of before. The cover looked quite attractive and it was one reason why I picked up the book for eighty rupees.

The Sunday Haul (on 23-10-2022)

 Last Sunday was the day before Diwali so all the shops in Abids were open and packed with shoppers. As a result the sellers at Abids shifted their books to other spots. Almost all of the second hand book sellers were present though at different spots. I found two titles both Virago modern classics coincidentally.

I sometimes fool myself into thinking that I know almost any writer worth knowing. But this illusion doesn’t last for long because almost every Sunday I find books by writers I haven’t heard before. Last Sunday too at Abids I found a book by an author I hadn’t heard before. It was a copy of ‘Winged Seeds’ by Katharine Susannah Prichard, a Virago Modern Classics title that seemed too attractive to give a miss to. I read that it was the third and last novel in an epic trilogy. The trilogy is set in the gold mines of Western Australia. It was a terrific find for I love to read Australian authors. But I was very disappointed at the same time since it would be impossible to find the other two titles.

The other Virago Modern Classic title that I found a few minutes after I found the copy of ‘Winged Seeds’ was a nice copy of ‘The Ante-Room’ by Kate O’ Brien. I had heard about Kate O’Brien but I haven’t found any book by her so far so finding the copy of ‘The Ante-Room’ was a wonderful surprise. I got these two books for hundred rupees each.

The Sunday Haul (on 09-10-2022)

 

Last Sunday turned out to be a bit special. My son agreed to come along with me to Abids. So off we went to Abids after breakfast on a sunny and bright Sunday morning. Though he did not buy any books I bought two titles.

I spotted an ancient looking book, a hardcover with a plastic cover with a seller. It was a copy of ‘The Man Died’ by Wole Soyinka. Though the pages inside were intact and in good condition the cover on the spine was damaged but it did not matter to me since I wanted to read what was inside so I bought it. It is an account of Wole Soyinka’s time in a jail in Nigeria.

On Saturday in a second hand book store I had found a small book, about half the size of a postcard. Last Sunday at Abids I found a similar sized book that was a copy of ‘We Should All Be Feminists’ TED talk that Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie gave. I got this small book of not more than fifty pages for fifty rupees. I have a few such books that I had picked up over the years. 

Afterwards we picked up biryani at Grand Hotel behind the GPO in Abids and took it home to have for lunch. 

The Sunday Haul (on 02.10.2022)

 Last Sunday at Abids was an absolute delight finding five great titles though the festival had made the shopkeepers open their shops which meant the second hand booksellers had to shift to other spots. But only a few of them had to do it and many other second hand booksellers were at their usual places. A few minutes into the market I saw a table with Rs 50 only written on a board and felt drawn to it. On the table I found a copy of an early edition of ‘The Snow Leopard’ by Peter Matthiessen. The first copy ot this title I had picked up more than two decades ago was of the same edition. Though I have two copies already I couldn’t resist buying this copy too so in it went into my haul.

On the same table was a beautiful and almost brand new copy of ‘Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind’ by Shunryu Suzuki, another title I had found long back. I couldn’t walk away without buying it so I picked it up. I felt it was a great start to the Sunday browsing at Abids and hurried to other sellers hoping to find more good titles.

Another few minutes and I found a beautiful, original copy of ‘Maximum City’ by Suketu Mehta, a title that I had been looking for since a long time. I think this is the original edition but I am not sure. Anyway I was quite thrilled to find it since I wanted to read it. I got it for just hundred rupees which was an unbelievable price to pay for such a good book in a nice condition.

With the same seller was another title- ‘Red April’ by Santiago Roncagliolo that intrigued me. On the cover it was mentioned that it was translated by Edith Grossman, translator of books of famous Latin American writers. Apart from the translator’s name I also discovered that it was published by Atlantic Books so I felt it could be a good book though I had not heard of Santiago Roncagliolo until last Sunday. I got this book too for only a hundred rupees.

Wherever I am I am always on the lookout for travel titles especially those by Jan Morris and Dervla Murphy whose ‘Full Tilt’ I have been unable to find. But last Sunday I found another title by her, ‘Where the Indus is Young’ by Dervla Murphy. I felt very excited when I spotted it on a shelf with a seller who asks for very high prices. So I waited with bated breath while he checked the book after I handed it to him to tell me the price. I breathed a sigh of relief when he asked hundred rupees for it. It was quite cheap at that price.

The Sunday Haul (on 25.09.2022)

The Sunday before last Sunday too I had made a good haul at Abids but I couldn’t write the post because I was very busy at work and did not get the time to sit and type it out. Since today and tomorrow are Dasara holidays for us I am writing the two posts at one go. It was a normal day on Sunday so there was no rain and I was at Abids at my usual time.

The first title I saw was a beautiful copy of ‘interesting times in India’ by Daniel O’ Connor with a seller who, to my surprise, gave it to me at the price I asked him. O’Connor taught at St Stephen’s College in Delhi for a decade and this book is a kind of memoir about that period. I got this book for eighty rupees.

 Actually I wasn’t prepared to find anything good more so anything by Javier Marias whose ‘Infatuations’ I had found a couple of weeks before, and had also finished reading just a few days before Sunday. So I very surprise when I saw a copy of ‘Between Eternities & Other Writings’ by Javier Marias with the same seller from whom I had bought ‘Infatuations’ sometime last month. I was quite excited when I read on the cover that it was a book of his non-fiction writing. I paid hundred rupees for it as it was in a pile of books selling for Rs 100 each.

In the same pile I also unearthed a copy of ‘Time after Time’ by Molly Keane with a wonderful cover. This too was for hundred rupees. I bought it since I saw that it was published by 'Abacus' and had a great blurb on the cover. 

The last title I found was a nice copy of ‘Walking with the Comrades’ by Arundhati Roy that I got for fifty rupees only. It is a short book of not more than a hundred and fifty pages so I want to finish reading it in one sitting sometime soon.

The Sunday Haul (on 18-09-2022)

 After the previous Sunday’s disappointment at not having been to the second hand book market at Abids due to continuous rain I was counting the days to the next Sunday, i.e., last Sunday. The weather was clear and sunny when I started for Abids after breakfast, and managed to find some really good titles in the hour and half that I was at Abids.

Since a long time I’ve been looking for books by Krishna Sobti especially her ‘Zindaginama’ that I found with a seller on WA last December. Last Sunday I found a hardcover copy of ‘Listen Girl’ by Krishna Sobti, the English translation of her ‘Ai Ladki’ that I had read about many time in several places. Translated by Shivanath and published by Katha ‘Listen Girl’s is a little over a hundred pages, just right to finish in a single sitting that I plan to read only after I finish reading ‘Zindaginama’ that is somewhere on one of the shelves at home.  

Then with the same seller I found a book that was by title Penguin that I automatically buy. It was a copy of ‘Ennal’s Point’ by Alun Richards, a writer I had never heard of before. However it seemed interesting as it was described as a ‘vivid and moving story about lifeboats and the men who sail in them’ on the back cover.

In the same pile of books I saw another title by an author I had again never heard of. It had an attractive cover and the title was ‘Saturday Night at the Greyhound’ by John Hampson. The reason why I picked it was that on the cover it also said ‘Hogarth Fiction’ published by Hogarth Press. On the back cover was a blurb by Graham Greene- ‘A Book I greatly admire’ which convinced me that it could indeed be a good read. I got these three books for only hundred rupees. 

Just before I decided to have a cup of tea in the local Irani I saw a nice copy of ‘Right of Passage: Travels from Brooklyn  to Bali’ by Rahul Jacob. It was a collection of travel essays by Rahul Jacob, and since I love travel titles I decided to buy it. I had seen the book earlier too but somehow I did not buy it then.

Even though I do not read sci-fi I couldn’t resist picking up the copy of ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ by Philip K. Dick that I saw. I messaged a friend who loves sci-fi if he wanted it but he messaged back saying he had a copy of it. So I bought it for eighty rupees.

A Recent Haul

Not only do I buy books at Abids and second hand bookstores in Hyderabad, I also buy them on WhatsApp groups of a couple of second hand booksellers based in different cities in the country. Last week I had claimed two wonderful travel titles that I wanted to post here since I couldn’t go to Abids on Sunday because it was raining quite heavily all day in Hyderabad.

The first title I had claimed was a nice hardcover copy of ‘The Penguin book of Indian Journeys’ edited by Dom Moraes who has also written the introduction. It is a collection of travel essays by many travel writers such as Jan Morris, Bruce Chatwin, Salman Rushdie, VS Naipaul, Mark Tully, Charlie Pye Smith, James Cameron and many others on various places and journeys within India. Some of these essays I have read elsewhere.

The other title was a nice copy, hardcover again, of ‘Out of God’s Oven’ by Dom Moraes and Sarayu Srivatsa that is described as ‘a revelatory blend of memoir, travelogue and reportage’ of the travels of the authors in India during a time when momentous events took place that shook the country’s conscience and took it in a dangerous direction, perhaps never to be the same again. Somehow I want to read this book right away without losing much time.