These three books are about ‘books.’ I bought these books some time back but was
not sure if I should write about them.
Two of these are by Indian writers and their books have been reviewed
fairly well and are being talked about in newspapers, magazines, on the
internet and so on. The spark that
created a flicker of interest in buying and reading these books was Vinod’s
birthday some months back. He wrote in
his blog how his friends gift him books on his birthday and that he has a list
ready for such occasions. He also said a
friend of his gifted him Nilanjana Roy’s The Girl Who Ate Books. I thought I too am a friend of his and asked
him which book he’d like as a birthday gift.
He promptly said, Navtej Sarna’s Second Thoughts. I liked this … no “no, ya, why, ya” kind of
hedging … I like to read, I want books, if you want to give me books, I will
tell you what I want. So, I sent him Second
Thoughts directly. He was glad,
of course.
A couple of weeks after I sent him Second
Thoughts, I wondered why don’t I buy these two books for myself. I enjoy reading books about books. I enjoyed reading Pradeep Sebastian’s The
Groaning Shelf, and subsequently Vinod turned my attention towards Anne
Fadiman’s Ex Libris and had gifted me Helene Hanff’s 84, Charing Cross Road. I did some online research to see what these
books contained. I used to sometimes
read Sarna’s column in The Hindu Sunday Supplement, and so I was familiar with
his writings. I knew the book would
predominantly lean towards literature.
Roy’s book seemed to cover a wider range. And since I was on a ‘books on books’ spree, I
searched for some more books with similar themes and discovered quite a
few. I settled for Tim Parks’ Where
I’m Reading From.
The books arrived within a few days.
Shruti and I were having a conversation about plagiarism in research and
all the ensuing problems, anti-plagiarism software, and so on. When I opened The Girl Who Ate Books and
browsed through the contents, I saw a section on Plagiarism! That section had three essays and those were
the essays that I read first, and so far.
I haven’t started Second Thoughts yet. Tim Parks’ book has very interesting essays
like ‘Why Finish Books,’ ‘E-books are for Grown-ups,’ ‘What’s Wrong with the
Nobel?’ ‘Does Copyright Matter?’ and many such ‘lateral’ essays related to
books, readers, and literature. There are a few more 'books about books' that I have wishlist-ed, and I am waiting for my pocket to become warm once again.
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