I had wanted to post
this immediately after the 4-book haul at Abids on 16th June...but
as usual, lots of small little things came in the way and offered me enough
unwanted distraction to keep postponing the reporting of this haul...
The previous visit to
Abids netted me enough to tempt me to go there again and again, but for three
consecutive Sundays I was unable to go...I wish I had the perseverance of Vinod...sigh!...the
biggest mind-block is the distance from my home and the need to change buses to
reach Abids...the previous time I had gone there in my car, with our on-call
driver... and it looked convenient ... but this time, I thought what’s the
point in spending 300 rupees on petrol and driver charges to buy 150 rupees
worth of books ... doesn’t work out, does it?
And so I thought I’d rough it out and hopped on to a bus, which would
take me till Koti and then a 15 minute walk to Abids...so, there I was...this
time I first went to the same stall from where I did not buy the Harlan Coben books
last time, hoping that the same books would still be there...good try, jai...ha
ha ha...some Harlan Coben books were there, but those were not what I had left
un-bought last time... I then noticed a Robert Crais book...The Forgotten
Man... chalo, theek hai...a book by a writer whose books I have been on the
lookout for...wow...
I went into the lane and
soon saw Uma and he led me to Vinod who was searching in a pile...this time I felt
I should spend some more time searching in the 20 Rs/30 Rs. piles...Vinod pointed out
a book to me...Peter Hoeg’s Smilla’s Sense of Snow... I vaguely
remembered the name of the writer and somewhere I also remembered that I had
read about Peter Hoeg on Wikipedia and also remembered that he was described as
a writer to be reckoned with, kind of... so, on the basis of ‘vague remembrances
of things read,’ I picked up this book. And
later when I re-read the entry, I found that he is described as a writer with a "reputation for being hard to place in terms of literary style. All his works are stylistically very different from one another, and have been labelled post-modern, gothic, magical-realist, to mention a few." And that this novel Smilla’s Sense of Snow (1992)
was the one which earned him “immediate and international literary
celebrity status.” Chalo, another good
book, on hindsight...
I dug deeper into the
pile of books... a book with a colourful cover caught my attention...the name
of the writer forced this attention to be rivetted...and the name of the book took
this rivetted attention to the furthest... I was nailed ... Waiting for
Godalming by Robert Rankin... I first thought this book was a
spoof...then I wondered whether Robert Rankin is the brother of Ian Rankin...and
was it somebody spoofing the name too... inside, there was something written
about the author and it said that he wrote “far-fetched fiction”...all these were
too tempting...twenty rupees changed hands...and I eagerly read whatever Wikipedia
had to tell me... "Robert Fleming Rankin is a prolific British humorous novelist. His books are a mix of science fiction, fantasy, the occult, urban legends, running gags, metafiction, steampunk, and outrageous characters. According to the (largely fictional) biography printed in some Corgi editions of his books, Rankin refers to his style as 'Far Fetched Fiction' in the hope that bookshops will let him have a section for himself." And I read the brief entry on Waiting for Godalming here and was stumped...I bought a really cranky book...I felt, again on hindsight...lots of hindsights...hmmm...
The fourth book... I
picked it up as soon as I saw it...Len Deighton’s Spy Line, a
nice hardbound copy only for 30 rupees ... the second in the Hook-Line-Sinker
trilogy... remember, I got Spy Sinker in the previous Abids haul? Looks like I am filling up the trilogy from
the bottom up...that means I have to wait till I get Spy Hook to start
reading the trilogy...
Four books so far,
and I wanted one more to make it five...a sort of comfortable ‘round’ figure...
I tried hard, but couldn’t find anything worth my while...time...or money...so,
four it was that day in Abids...
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