And finally … two Robinsons and my DCI Banks series is complete …

The Robinson novel that I missed at Butterfly Books was nagging me now.  Then, there is this other Robinson novel that was available with another used books seller on Amazon.  With these in my bag, my ‘DCI Banks’ set would be complete.  I was waiting for both novels to appear with one seller.  I kept trawling all used books sellers on Amazon and sometime around the middle of this month, I saw that these two ‘DCI Banks’ were available with J D Books.  The prices were more than I expected, but less than what I had seen earlier with the other bookseller.  And moreover, I was desperate you see.  I had binge read the last four ‘DCI Banks’ novel and the next one in the series was this.  I couldn’t wait.  The other novel appears somewhere in the middle of the series and I could catch up with it later.  I put these two in the basket and saw that the total was short of the shipping waiver limit.  I would have to look for another book to reach the limit or I have to pay shipping charges.  After much hair-pulling, I found a novel by Matthew Pearl, The Last Dickens, which I had mentioned in my bibliothrillers series earlier, but one which I hadn’t read.  It was an unintentional ‘limit-reaching’ purchase, but what the heck. 

 

The package arrived 5 days later.  My ‘DCI Banks’ collection was complete, except for the most recent one. What I was most pleased about was that all were ‘used books’ purchases.  I got some at Abids, some from Best Books, and the most recent were these three heavy purchases from Amazon.  I finished Abattoir Blues and now reading Innocent Graves. 

The Rankin raid experience … from Butterfly Books on Amazon Used Books

In the final analysis, it was rather touching or amusing, depending on the type of person you are.  Not that I didn’t want to buy novels by Ian Rankin, but the buy didn’t set out to be a raid on Rankin as it appears now.  After buying 12 Peter Robinson novels in ‘two fell swoops,’ I saw that there were two novels yet to be highlighted in yellow on my ‘Peter Robinson’ list.  I found one of them going very cheap with Butterfly Books, another used books’ seller on Amazon.  But I was loath to pay Rs.65 for shipping when the book itself was priced lesser.  I had to fill the cart with books worth at least Rs.399 for the shipping charges to be waived off.  

I scanned my memory bank for titles I was missing.  Eventually, I decided to search for those titles missing in my Ian Rankin list.  The prices were tempting and I went berserk.  I forgot about ‘the Rs.399’ limit and the lone Robinson novel for which I was now filling the cart with Rankin novels.  I crossed all limits and the raid ended only when I saw that I had filled all the gaps in my Rankin list.  The shopping cart now had seven Rankins and one Robinson.  ‘The 399 limit’ was breached long ago.  All that remained was to click the ‘checkout’ button. 

For some reason I postponed the ‘checkout’ and a few hours later the ‘buyout’ frenzy became a hazy memory.  The next day, I remembered the books waiting in the cart and decided to ‘checkout.’ 

I went to my ‘shopping cart’ and you know what … somebody had pulled the rug from underneath the carefully planned purchase.  The entire rationale for which I ‘carted’ the seven Rankin novels had collapsed.  Of all the books available with Butterfly Books, somebody had to go ahead and buy that one Robinson novel I had in my cart!!!  I felt like Rick Blaine ... huh ... !  

I cursed myself.  I searched again and again across all the used books sellers’ portals on Amazon.  Absolutely no luck.  The seven Rankin novels in my cart stared back at me.  Should I cut my losses and wait for another opportunity for that Robinson novel to turn up?  Would that opportunity come sooner or later?  I had put together the Rankin novels with a great deal of fondness, no doubt.  I didn’t want to lose out on these too.  So, after a raging debate in my mind, the dust finally settled and I pressed ‘checkout’ for a cartful of Rankin novels.  Not that the package, when it arrived, compensated for the laxity on my part for not being hungry enough, but the sight of each Rankin novel separately shrink wrapped and each looking as good as new, went a long way in consoling my bruised soul for some time. 

That Robinson novel that I had pined for and lost and another one, which too is not on my list, are both available under used books on Amazon, but unfortunately with two different booksellers and each would charge Rs.65 separately for shipping.  And that Robinson novel now costs almost three times more with this used books’ seller than it used to with Butterfly Books.  Sometimes I feel like kicking myself, and sometimes I smile, amused at how it all turned out in the end.

‘After all, it is only a book.  Why get all het up about that.’ 

Yeah, yeah … 

Another Peter Robinson haul ... this time from Gopal Books

After the 6-book haul of Peter Robinson’s novels from Save Earth Books under Amazon used books, this reckless desire to get hold of all Peter Robinson (Inspector Banks) novels caught hold of me.  I went back and searched under Save Earth Books again, but without much luck, both with respect to titles and prices.  There was another bookseller under Amazon used books called Gopal Books.  I looked for those missing Peter Robinson novels in my list and found 5 Inspector Banks novels and a short story collection with two Banks’ stories (The Price of Love).  There was some procrastination because of the prices.  The prices were not as low as I found them on Save Earth Books.  Let’s say Abids prices against Best Books prices, if you can get the drift.  After two days of procrastinating (ha ha), I gave in.  Recklessness won over prudence, sort of.  

These six books came in a week after I had placed the order.  Whereas the books sent by Save Earth Books were new (maybe unsold stock) and priced less, the books sent by Gopal Books were definitely old, though they don’t have any marks to indicate previous user/s.  And the prices were higher too, and so apart from the satisfaction of having filled in five more gaps in the list of ‘Inspector Banks’ novels, and the anticipation of reading these novels, I should not deny that there was a bit of disappointment.  But I got over that soon enough, because I now had eleven Inspector Banks novels to read.  I need three more Banks’ novels to fill in all the blanks in the list till 2016.  I am now binge reading Inspector Banks novels … and won’t come out of moors and dales of Yorkshire anytime soon.