Books in 2012...

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The 2012 collection is a general mix of books crime fiction, literary fiction, humour, literary essays, music, and dictionaries (??) ... I relied on my book haul posts and ‘orders’ list on online bookstores...and remembered purchases...so, I might have missed some, not many, just three or four... and this time, my own book was released towards the end of 2012, which made the year memorable...Like the list?

1.      Taj Mahal Foxtrot: The Story of Bombay’s Jazz Age – Naresh Fernandes

2.      Essential Groucho 

3.      Tamil Pulp Fiction

4.      Encounter – Milan Kundera

5.      The Curtain: An Essay in Five Parts – Milan Kundera

6.      The Prague Cemetery – Umberto Eco

7.      The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana – Umberto Eco

8.      Dork: The Incredible Adventures of Robin Einstein Varghese – Sidin Vadakut

9.      God Save the Dork – Sidin Vadakut

10.  The Yellow Emperor’s Cure – Kunal Basu

11.  Complete Prose: Woody Allen

12.  Yes, Prime Minister

13.  The Spy Who Came in from the Cold – John Le Carre

14.  Don’t Get Mad, Get Even – Alan Abel

15.  The Complete Monty Python’s Flying Circus Vol. 2  

16.  Piece of my Heart – Peter Robinson

Kannada

1.      Sahitya Sanchara (literary essays) – T P Ashoka

2.      Sahitya Sambandha (literary essays) – T P Ashoka

3.      Varnamaya (general essays) – Vasudehndra

4.      Neelakurunji (poems) – Satyanarayana Rao Anathi

Kannada Lexicons

1.      Padanidhi (Kannada thesaurus) – Prashanth Madtha

2.      Nalnudi Nighantu – H. Allisaab

3.      Igo Kannada (Vols. 1-3) – Prof. G. Venkatasubbaiah

4.      Janapada Nudigattugala Kosha – Prof. Sudhakar

5.      Eravalu Padakosha – Prof. G. Venkatasubbaiah

6.      Sirigannada Arthakosha – Dr Shivarama Karantha

7.      English Padagalige Kannadadde Padagalu – D N Shankara Bhatta

8.      Samkshipta Kannada Nighantu – Kannada Sahitya Parishath

9.      English-Kannada Dictionary (4 Vols. in one) – Mysore University

Byomkesh Bakshi (originally in Bengali by Sardindu Bandyopadhyay)

1.      Byomkesh Bakshi Stories – (Trans. by Monimala Dhar: Rupa)

2.      The Rhythm of Riddles – 3 Byomkesh Bakshi Mysteries (Trans. by Arunava Sinha: Puffin)

3.      Picture Imperfect & other Byomkesh Bakshi Mysteries (Trans. Sreejata Guha: Penguin)

4.      Menagerie & other Byomkesh Bakshi Mysteries (Trans. Sreejata Guha: Penguin)

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Series – Alexander McCall Smith

1.      The Miracle at Speedy Motors

2.      Good Husband of Zebra Drive 

3.      Blue Shoes And Happiness

4.      Full Cupboard of Life 

Ian Rankin

1.      Watchman

2.      The Naming of the Dead

3.      Set in Darkness

4.      Resurrection Men

5.      Fleshmarket Close

6.      Let it Bleed

7.      Dead Souls

8.      The Falls

9.      A Question of Blood

10.  Tooth and Nail

11.  Exit Music

Parker – Spenser

1.      Crimson Joy

2.      Judas Goat

3.      Mortal Stakes

4.      Sudden Mischief

5.      Cold Service

6.      Pastime

7.      Rough Weather

8.      Classic Robert B. Parker (2 early Spenser mysteries) – Promised Land & Looking for Rachel Wallace

Parker – Jesse Stone

1.      Night Passage

2.      Trouble in Paradise

Dave Barry

1.      Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States

2.      Dave Barry’s Guide to Life

3.      Dave Barry’s Book of Bad Songs

Let’s see what 2013 has in store...

Hyderabad Book Fair 2012 haul - Six Rankins

This time's visit to the Hyderabad Book Fair was almost after a 5-year break...I regularly visit second hand book stalls in Hyderabad and purchase books and as for new books, I have my trusted online bookshops where substantial discounts are offered...and even I used to visit the Book Fair, I always was interested in second hand book stalls...and once long back Shruti had gifted me a gorgeous book on Salvador Dali's paintings which she bought on instalment from a Kolkata-based book distributor who had a stall there...and anyway, this time, I hadn't planned the visit...Shruti and Mamoon were in Shimoga at that time, and I was to leave for Shimoga the next day to join them...I wanted to buy some books as gifts for my gurus in Shimoga and remembered that the Book Fair was still on and thought I'd go there first...and since I decided to buy these books almost at the last minute, I didn't have any time to order books online...and so I went to the People's Plaza on Necklace Road where the Fair was on...since I reached there at 2.00 in the afternoon, the crowd was sparse and I enjoyed the early emptiness of the stalls...but I couldn't find anything refreshing at the stalls selling new books and concentrated on second hand book stalls...and soon ran out of patience...I was looking for Robert Parker books and couldn't locate any...my friend Vinod is a patient and diligent book hunter and had found some Parkers in the Fair...lucky chap...I was drifting around aimlessly just looking at the stalls and found a stall which had suitably and enticingly shabby looking books...why not go in?  I went in and was totally and happily surprised to see a shelf full of second-hand Ian Rankin books, and the best part was, each one was priced only Rs.50/-...this was a bonanza actually...at that point I regretted not making a list of Rankins and carrying a copy with me the same way I did with my Parker books...but nothing could be done and I relied on memory, hoping I would make no double purchases...and carefully started selecting titles...I was able to put together 6 titles...Watchman, The Naming of the Dead, Set in Darkness, Resurrection Men, Flesh Market Close, Let it Bleed...Watchman turned out to be 'a re-issue of Ian Rankin's Classic Hard-to-Find early spy novel'...and so I started reading it first...it is not a Rebus novel though...a police detective called Miles Flint holds fort here...I have reached page 70 now, and am eager to complete it, but am not finding time...and I also discovered that through some luck, four of the remaining five novels are in sequence...Resurrection Men (No. 13), Set in Darkness (No. 14), Flesh Market Close (No. 15), The Naming of the Dead (No. 16)...Let it Bleed comes early in at No. 7...

Chandramukhiya Ghatavu - front cover

My friend Dunkin reminded me that my previous post had something missing...a picture of the front cover of Chandramukhiya Ghatavu...I tried taking photographs, but I was not happy with the almost 15 photos that I took...I then took the help of a colleague in my college and requested him to scan the cover...here it is...

My book launched...English translation of Chandramukhiya Ghatavu..

28 December 2012 will remain a memorable day for me...my first book, the English translation of an early Kannada novel, Chandramukhiya Ghatavu, was released on that day in Shimoga...in many ways a dream- come-true occasion for me...the book is published by Abhiruchi Prakashana, Shimoga and my teacher Prof C S Nanjundaiah (formerly Principal, DVS College of Arts and Science, Shimoga) facilitated the publication...the book was released by Prof T P Ashoka (L B College, Sagar), one of the pre-eminent literary critics writing in Kannada today...Prof Ashoka was someone we idolised in our college days in Shimoga and it was indeed an honour for me that he agreed to release my first book...Prof M S Nagaraja Rao, my teacher, and who now calls me his friend, introduced me to the small audience in his own inimitable style...and the function was held in Kuvempu Sabhangana in Kamala Nehru College...as students I had attended many literary functions in this hall and I had never dreamt that one day my book would be released in the same hall...and everything fell into place and the book was released in the presence of my parents, Shruti, Sudhriti, my sister-in-law Shuba, nephew Tejaswi, some of my earliest Shimogan friends and classmates, my teachers, fellow academics, and family friends...

Prof Ashoka spoke with erudition about the contexts and contents of the book and its current avatar in English...I will now direct you to a report of the book release which appeared in the Mangalore edition of The Hindu the next day, and this report gives a nice summary of Prof Ashoka's talk...(but funnily, I am snipped out of the photograph, though my name appears in the photo caption...)

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/tp-ashok-releases-the-fall-of-chandramukhi/article4251698.ece

and here are some photographs of the function...

Prof C S Nanjundaiah welcoming guests and audience

Prof M S Nagaraja Rao introducing me to the audience

Prof T P Ashoka releasing the book

All on stage with the released book

Another view of the previous

Prof Ashoka speaks

A lighter moment on the dais

That's me speaking...

Prof U H Ganesh, who presided over the function, speaks...

The small gathering...

Prof Nanjundaiah giving me a memento...

Prof Manjunath proposing the vote of thanks...