On Sunday morning I found a flyer trapped in between the pages of the newspaper. A simple glossy black and white page which announced a sale of books in the city. It also had those three magic words which make my heart pound, “last few days”! And so I had to check out the sale.
I walked into the hall and into chaos. It seemed like everyone’s heart pounded at the same three magic words. My competitive “sale” spirit took over. My first loss – and I am still smarting from it – Mario Vargas Llosa’s The Feast of the Goat. I saw a good-looking lady pick that up and not let go even after I glared at her.
It was a bit disorienting for the first half hour. The books were not arranged but rather strewn haphazardly all over the tables and some were thrown casually in the cartons below the tables. However, some other books were arranged in semi neat rows. The book sale looked more like a warzone. Since this was the case, I could not expect subject-wise classification, and therefore had to go through every pile of books there was. Finally, I was just relieved when the books worth buying started to come to me. They would float face up in the mess waiting almost to be saved by me. Or so I imagined. The prices were the fantastic though; I paid between Rs.50 to Rs.150 for each book. So these are the books I saved:
- Surface by Siddhartha Deb (Fiction)
- Cuckold by Kiran Nagarkar (Fiction)
- Filming by Tabish Khair (Fiction)
- Reef by Romesh Gunasekera (Fiction)
- Buddha (3) by Osamu Tezuka (Graphic Novel)
- The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf (Theory/Non-Fiction)
- Inéz of my Soul by Isabel Allende (Fiction)
- Freedom Song by Amit Chaudhury (Fiction)
- Journey to the City of Six Gates (Graeme MacQueen)
- Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco by Peter Shapiro (Music History/Non-Fiction)
This should keep me busy for the next couple of months.
South of the Border, West of the Sun 
Whoa! How do you know of these books? Or just books in general?
I know of books in general because I always at the Guardian books site! Also, I am surrounded by writer friends who give me their recommendations. But mostly, I read read read. Anything and everything. I will read about a book as long as that is also interesting.
Some of these books have been published recently and were all over the papers. One I heard about when I was studying. One I kept seeing on the bookshelves; it has a tantalizing first line: “Rice and fingers! Rice and fingers!” One other book, I remembered I sort of glanced through at the Guardian books site.
I have read Cuckold. I don’t have an opinion.
Okay. 🙂
Thank you. I am inspired. I have begun catching up on my reading and while I am at it I do have to tell you that I have read South of the border, west of the sun. I am really glad I was introduced to Haruki Murakami by your blog.
EU/det-res: Thank you! Murakami is a delight to read. I’d love to create a community of Murakami fans! 🙂
Yup, I was introduced to HM by AFJ, as well! 🙂
You are most welcome Atulji! And welcome back!