Hyderabad Book Fair December 2018 -- 4 books on Indian Art

Last day of this year’s Book Fair … 25 December 2018 … tried valiantly all the previous days to visit the book fair, but no success, and so I was determined … I wanted to reach before the crowds came in and accordingly I left home at 12, grabbed some lunch and reached NTR Stadium at around 1.30, and saw that there was considerable hustle and bustle … aah, on public holidays and Sundays, the book fair opens its doors to the public at 12 noon … rest of the days, it’s 2 o’ clock … could have started earlier …

I didn’t have any particular book or author in mind … I was interested to see the stuff in secondhand book stalls … I sauntered … walked in and out of various stalls … lots of books looked interesting, but I knew I would buy them just for initial kicks and then they would pile up … I gravely thought of the books I had bought last year at the book fair … I had read only two books and a couple of short stories from the 7 books I purchased last time … I was curious about all those religious books’ stalls … I went inside a couple of stalls and looked around a bit … some were also selling music, incense, and religion related paraphernalia … the people looking after these stalls looked like volunteers … last time, I had bought a copper ring in the shape of a snake at one such stall … the man who was manning that stall told me that my mind would become sharp like a snake … the fingers on my left hand looked bare, so I bought it … I have been wearing it every day since that day …

And there was this stall which looked chaotic … in the sense that there was no order or arrangement … I like such places … lots of hidden things … and lots of work for the brain, to make connections … you never know what you could end up with … I checked if I had enough cash … and began rummaging … I went stack by stack on the shelves, pile by pile on the floor … there I saw a collection of books on Indian art … old, new, modern, regional, etc. … mmmm, I thought … I found the mother lode … ideally I would have liked to buy everything on offer … but I curbed my enthusiasm, despite the card in my pocket … I calmed myself down and sat down to sort out the pile and see what I wanted absolutely … I selected five books … I knew this was going to exceed my budget …

I found two books on individual artists in the Contemporary Indian Artists Series … one on Paritosh Sen and the other on Krishen Khanna … they looked like unsold books not handled properly … here and there the pages looked soiled … I re-rummaged and saw that there were a few more copies of the same books, and selected the best looking ones … after all, there is more to see here than to read …

Then I saw this book on conversations with Indian artists by Anupa Mehta … interviews with 20 contemporary artists and images of their art … this was really good and the images were lovely … more to read here …

 

Then there was book on 101 Rare Artworks from the History of Indian Modern and Contemporary Art … it is a sort of auction catalogue of Osian … the pictures of the artworks were sharp and lovely and each had accompanying text …

I also wanted to buy this lovely book on Bengali Kalighat paintings, and added it to these four books … and then the bookseller and I began this bargain dance for the four books … na na no no … haan haan na na … yes yes … why not … arre bhai … last day … haan haan … na na … de do de do … I told him if you want your price, then you have to add the book on Kalighat Paintings … he was horrified … arre na na … that book alone is 700 saab … and finally he relented and gave the four books at the price I quoted …

This is what I read last week … Burglars Can’t Be Choosers … Lawrence Block’s gentleman burglar, Bernie Rhodenbarr’s first outing …

I came across the name Lawrence Block when I was looking for Michael Connelly’s short stories featuring Bosch.  This was a story called Nighthawks that was included in an anthology of stories inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper called In Sunlight or in Shadow: Stories inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper.  This anthology was edited by Lawrence Block and I was happily surprised by a book full of stories inspired by the paintings of a single artist!!  Here Bosch appears in the story, Nighthawks, inspired by Hopper’s painting of the same name.  I wanted to buy this book; the book was available, but very expensive and I kept visiting amazon in the hope that the price would come down or the book would appear in a used books portal.  So, Lawrence Block was on the radar and then recently, I saw that there was another book, similar in concept, also edited by him – Alive in Shape and Color: 17 Paintings by Great Artists and the Stories They Inspired.  Both books have this heady combination of literature and painting, and I was fascinated by this whole idea.  It was then that I wanted to find out more about Lawrence Block. 

 

And this was like entering some sort of treasure cave … there was so much detective and crime fiction that Block has written and so much variety and so many different series’ and characters that I began to wonder if this was the same Block who edited those two books. 

I was intrigued by all these characters, but Bernie Rhodenbarr, the gentleman burglar, fascinated me the most.  I wanted to start from the first in the series and started with Burglars can’t be Choosers.  

Bernie is such a lovely chap and the way things happen in this book is so engaging that I finished this in real good time.  He is a ‘talented’ burglar, of course, but he lifts valuable stuff and money only from the rich, with the firm belief that the poor have nothing worth stealing.  He doesn’t steal in his own building or locality, and so he is a good neighbour, though his neighbours have an inkling of his profession.  He is a freelancer, but in this book, he accepts an assignment, that too from a total stranger.  Bernie has to lift an item from a wealthy man’s apartment.  There was supposed to be payment for the job.  The cops dash in while Bernie is still on the job, and one of the cops finds a corpse in the bedroom, of which Bernie has no idea.  Interesting, no?  He pushes away a policeman and rushes out of the apartment. 

Now, the police have declared him the murderer.  To clear his name, Bernie has to find the murderer, and for that he has conduct his own investigation.  And he has to evade the police.  He gets help from some known and some unknown sources.  Lots of witty dialogues, repartees, and puns.  Bernie is a learned fellow.  The clever and droll use of language adds to the humour of the situation.  Oh, it was a great read.  I picked up the second in the series soon afterwards …  

What have you been reading these days? The Liar in the Library

The Liar in the Library by Simon Brett is again a series novel, the 18^th in the Fethering Mysteries series.  This book too was released in 2017.  Simon Brett is one of the writers I discovered for myself while looking around for more crime fiction.  He has four series’ of detective novels going on currently, among other standalone novels and plays.  His Charles Paris series is the oldest, the first in the series apeparing in 1975.  The Fethering Series was born in 2000, but I stumbled upon them around five years ago, and as usual had a lot of catching up to do.  From 2012 onwards, I have been on the ball, waiting for the next novel in the series.  The Fethering Novels feature Carole Seddon and Jude, two elderly ladies playing amateur sleuths in Fethering, ‘a town of ordered calm’ and “a pleasingly self-contained retirement town on England's southern coast.”  Carole Seddon took (was forced to take, sort of) early retirement from the civil service and bought a house and settled down with her dog, in Fethering; divorced, stiff upper lip, reticent, fixed ideas and all that.  Jude has been many things earlier and is currently a healer; no last name, just Jude, which disturbs Carole, who also suspects that Jude has had a colourful past, Jude is vivacious, humourous, lots of friends.  They are polar opposites in terms of personalities, yeah, like chalk and cheese, you might say.  And they happen to find themselves as neighbours.  What brings them together is crime and solving of crime in Fethering.  

The Liar in the Library is the 18^th in the series, and Jude and Carole have come a long way together, and are tolerant of each other’s quirks and habits and temperaments, but care for each other deeply.  They also have solved a number of crimes and have helped each other come out of numerous tricky situations.  Here, it is Jude who is accused of murdering a famous author who had come to Fethering for a book promotion talk.  They had known each other earlier, but had lost touch over the years.  There are lots of other things too.  The interactions between Jude and Carole, which is the actual highlight of these novels, are as fascinating as in the earlier novels.  Anyway, Jude is initially angry at being accused of murder and as the questioning sessions by the police never seem to end she starts to panic.  Evidence is building up against her.  Jude confides to Carole, who has her own suspicions about Jude and the writer.  Carole then takes over the investigation as Jude is warned by the police against interfering in the case.  The police is unwilling to look beyond Jude as all evidence and information is clearly pointing towards her.  Jude has to find the murderer not only to solve the crime, but also to clear her name.  This is a different battle for Jude and Carole, and of course, they do find the murderer, and Jude heaves a sigh of relief, still very shaken. 

What have you been reading these days? A Distant View of Everything

A Distant View of Everything was another novel released in 2017, which was bought and read in 2018.  This novel is the 11^th in the Isabel Dalhousie mysteries or The Sunday Philosophy Club series by Alexander McCall-Smith, another hugely popular series.  I found out about this series while I looking for more about Alexander McCall-Smith.  I saw that he had another 'mystery' series – the Isabel Dalhousie mysteries.  Though I was intrigued by the ‘mysteries’ attached to one of the names given the series, I was intimated by the ‘philosophy club’ in the other name.  I felt it would be heavy reading, all that philosophy and stuff.  But ‘mystery’ won over ‘philosophy,’ and I started the first, The Sunday Philosophy Club, from which the series gets its name.  The novels are about Isabel Dalhousie and her life in Edinburgh.  She is a philosopher, not a practicing one, but one by training and thinking; and she is the editor of the Review of Applied Ethics.  There are a number of people around her that makes her life interesting and there is lots of art and music, and of course, Edinburgh is a huge presence in these novels.  As far as ‘mystery’ is concerned, it is more of Isabel getting involved in the lives of others, and solving their issues and problems; but the problems are interesting.  There is a lot of gentleness and thoughtfulness that have gone into these novels, just like the author’s The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency novels.  I read the first one and found myself liking Isabel and all those people and what was happening in their lives.  Since I started late, I had to catch up till 2012, by which time 10 novels had already appeared in the series.  For some reason, a gap of three years intervened between the 10^th and the 11^th novel in the series.  By the time, the 11^th arrived in 2015, I was ready and eagerly waiting. 

A Distant View of Everything came out in 2017, but again I waited till the paperback was released and the prices came down a bit.  I bought it when both conditions were sufficiently met.  What about the book itself?  A second son is born to Isabel and her musician husband, Jamie; there are sibling issues here; a possibility of a misunderstanding between Isabel and Jamie is projected and averted; she gets involved in a problem concerning a friend of a friend and does some investigations of her own; and everything ends well.  Lots of philosophy, actually ethics; and then some art, and music, and lots of Edinburgh.

What have you been reading these days? The Sense of an Ending, The House of Unexpected Sisters

Not that anyone wonders, but sometimes I wonder whether readers are wondering if I read anything at all … always posting about books purchased at Abids, online secondhand bookstores, and here and there … does he only buy or does he read too … these are some of the thoughts I was thinking about that readers might be thinking about …

So, during the last month and a half, around 45 to 50 days, I read these books … this is only Part 1 ... 

I had read a lot about Julian Barnes over the years, reviews of his books, his Booker moment, the movie-making of The Sense of an Ending, and so on.  But I hadn’t read any of his books.  Two Abids visits ago, Umashankar mentioned that he had read The Sense of an Ending recently and that it was really good and worth all the acclaim it was getting and also that the final part takes your breath away.  I resolved to buy and read the novel.  And I did.  And it is a wonderful read, no doubt about it.  I was reading literary fiction after a long long time and I had to consciously control my reading pace.  This is the copy I got, though I didn’t like the film-inspired cover … would have liked something artistic. 

As it usually happens with me, I wanted more of Julian Barnes.  I found two – Arthur and George and Flaubert’s Parrot – on online secondhand books portals, and I found Barnes’ short-story collection, Cross Channel at Abids two Sundays back.  I started Arthur and George and stopped after a hundred pages … it is about two well-known real life characters in England, and like a fool, I peeked into Wikipedia, and lost the plot …   

After The Sense of an Ending, I read The House of Unexpected Sisters by Alexander McCall-Smith.  This is the most recent (the 18^th) in The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. 

I bought the first one, also named The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, and two more in the series, in 2010, at a bookstore in Bangalore selling all books at half price, and the ‘detective’ in the title made me buy the book.  By 2010, McCall-Smith had already written eleven books in the series.  McCall-Smith writes one book every year in this series, mind you, he has four other series' going on and writes standalone novels and books for children.  By 2013, I had caught up with the author and since then I have been reading the novels in the series as they are released.  No more backlogs ... 

The House of Unexpected Sisters was released in 2017, but I waited till the second half of 2018 (though the waiting was tense and excruciating …) for the paperback to be released and for the price to come down to acceptable levels.  All that waiting was rewarded with a great story, and a couple of more stories.  And this time the mysteries that need to be cleared are all too close to home and work, for Precious Ramotswe and her husband, Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni, and for Grace Makutsi (who began her career in the Agency as its secretary and became Precious Ramotswe’s detective-assistant, but is now the self-proclaimed associate detective and partner in the Agency).  But no problem is that problematic that Precious Ramotswe cannot find a solution to; and there is Bush Tea, of course, a sip of which sets Mma Ramotswe’s brain whirring.

I knew this would happen … and it happened with Ngaio Marsh novels …

Not the recent visit to Abids (22 July 2018), but the visit before that (3 June 2018) … I got my first Ngaio Marsh novel, Opening Night, on that day … I knew very little about the author and I came home and read more about her on wikipedia (where else!).  Ngaio Marsh was New Zealand born, but her detective of 32 novels, Roderick Alleyn, works for the London Police, all novels, except four are set in England.  Roderick Alleyn is known as a ‘gentleman detective.’  And Ngaio Marsh is known as one of the four ‘queens of crime’ of the Golden Age of crime fiction, along with Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and Margery Allingham.  So, I gathered all this information about the writer. 

Next was … and I knew this would happen soon … one hitherto unknown author’s book turns out to be interesting and setting off a spark  … I wanted to see where I could get more Ngaio Marsh novels.  Used copies were what I was looking for, not new ones, so I went to secondhandbooksindia.com and I found these three lovely old green and white penguin editions of Ngaio Marsh novels … all more than fifty years old …

I don’t know when I would finally read them, but it felt good having them in my collection.  One of these days, I’m going to fill a backpack with around 50 novels, all unread detective novels of my favourite authors, and go to Goa, find a reclining chair and a quiet beach, sit under a tree, and read through the day.  Ah … well … hazaron khwahishein and all that …

Anyway, and since I was visiting the book site, I wanted to check if they had uploaded anything new … I found a beautifully antique looking collection of Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe stories … Pearls are a Nuisance … the stories in these are already available in another collection with me, but I did not want to let this one go …           

And I also found a Nero Wolfe novel by Rex Stout, Gambit.  I had found three Nero Wolfe novels during my previous purchase at secondhandbooksindia.com in February this year, when I had caught the Wolfe bug.       

Now, it is the Ngaio Marsh bug … and I found three Roderick Alleyne novels this time.  All this happened in early June.

Three books of three favourite authors ... Abids on 22 July 2018

Abids on Sunday the 22^nd of July 2018 was nice and cool.  This was a postponed visit actually.  I had arranged to meet Susheel at Abids the previous Sunday, but the two ladies at home had made some other plan.  I didn’t know their plan earlier; I hadn’t told them of my Abids plan.  I went along with the ladies since it was a lunch plan. 

And here I was, at Abids, at 11 in the morning.  Susheel said he was on his way.  I did some b(l)ooking around and found a book that I wanted to buy.  It was in fairly good shape, but I thought I’d come around one more time and see.  I didn’t want to show too much interest.  I saw Umashankar first; then Vinod arrived.  After some initial browsing, Umashankar, Vinod, and I went to the Irani hotel for chai.  Then Susheel called and said he’d reached Abids.  Vinod and Uma went inside the café and there was another friend of theirs along with them.  I waited outside for Susheel, and then we had chai.  I was meeting Susheel after years.  He is my oldest friend in Hyderabad, going back to 1991.  He recently converted to fountainpenism and that was an added topic that we talk about on chat machines. 

Anyway, Vinod and Umashankar were still at the Irani sipping tea and chatting.  I told Vinod that I’d be moving ahead with Susheel.  Susheel and I went around seeing books and talking, but not finding anything.  I was wondering if I’d get anything today at all.  We went inside the complex, there were heaps of books.  Susheel went through a stack of comics, then he found some Manga comics.  But he didn’t pick up any.  I saw another book which I thought I should pick up, but let it lie.   

We came out of the complex from the other side and rounded back to the beginning of Bata galli.  There was 20 rupees pile there and I had found some books there earlier. In this pile I found my first Ross Macdonald-Lew Archer novel at Abids so far… a Lew Archer novel that I hadn’t read yet, that too for 20 rupees.  I was ecstatic, but didn’t show it much.  The Doomsters was the last Lew Archer novel on my list and after searching for a long time, I settled for an omnibus edition (Archer in Jeopardy) with this novel and two more Lew Archer novels.  The omnibus edition was purchased more for its antiquarian value, so this copy at Abids was very gratefully accepted. 

After that I saw Susheel off, and resumed my search.  I thought I’d see if those two books that I was interested in earlier were still there.  One was there … waiting.  When I saw Cross Channel by Julian Barnes on that pile, I was not sure … I had read Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending recently, and on the back of it, had purchased Arthur & George and The Noise of Time.  I had started reading Arthur & George, and I was on a Julian Barnes trip anyway.  I knew that Cross Channel is not a novel, because I hadn’t seen the book on the list of novels by Barnes, so I thought it’d be a book of essays when I saw it on the pavement at Abids.  Now I picked it up and read what was written on the back cover and realized that it is a book of short stories.  I didn’t hesitate, I picked the book up for 30 rupees. 

I had seen Keigo Higashino’s Naoko very early on on Sunday, but hadn’t picked it up.  I am a big fan of Higashino’s novels, and when I saw Naoko at Abids, my eyebrows shot up.  For one, I have been seeing this same edition on amazon, and the price was high for me.  I also felt that this was an overseas edition not yet available for sale in Indian shops, so I was also surprised that this book found its way to Abids.  Anyway, I was pleased that I found it.  I asked how much, he said 60, I said 30, he said 40, I said done. 

And this time at Abids I got three books by three authors whose books I had read earlier and enjoyed and appreciated.  All for 90 rupees only.  This sort of thing doesn’t happen often at Abids.

Archer in Hollywood … Ross Macdonald’s first omnibus … how I got an antiquarian first edition ...

Ever since I read Pradeep Sebastian’s The Book Hunters of Katpadi, I have caught this ‘antiquarian’ bug.  I have been carefully going through some old books in my collection to check dates and editions.  Even while reading The Book Hunters …, I discovered that some English novels by Indian writers that I have are first editions.  I was thrilled.

So, this thing continued to bug me.  In my previous Ross Macdonald post I had mentioned that only two more novels and my Lew Archer set would be complete.  I was chasing these two titles, The Moving Target and Doomsters, in right earnest … with washed hands.  This omnibus edition of three Archer novels titled Archer in Hollywood kept popping up at regular intervals … mainly because it had The Moving Target and two other Archer novels that I had already have.  I was looking for a ‘standalone’ copy at a reasonable price, but the ‘reasonable’ part was becoming elusive.  The Archer in Hollywood omnibus edition continued to pop up.  I slowly began noticing that it had a very delicious antiquarian looking cover.  I clicked on it and saw that the book was being sold on a used books portal … not surprising that the book looked ‘antique.’  What about the price?  I want only one novel, but I would be paying for three.  The price was, I felt, higher than what I’d usually consider paying, when push comes to shove.  The cover tempted me so much that I decided to go for it. 

But not so soon.  I checked the details provided on the page once again … publisher, ISBN number, year of publication.  They seemed all right and going by the picture of the cover, the book is bound to be an ‘antique,’ I thought.  I was also aware that sometimes websites use stock images of book covers and not the actual picture of the book they are selling.  I sent a mail to the seller wanting to know if I’ll get the same book with the same cover.  I received a reply which was non-committal and which also sounded optimistic in a vague sort of way.  I didn’t want to mention all that ‘antiquarian’ stuff in the mail because I myself was not so sure; who knows somebody there might decide not to sell the book? 

With no firm answer in sight, I decided to take the leap of faith … ooo aaah …

Anyway, I leaped … and my faith was rewarded … for once …

Look what I got …

The front cover is exactly what was shown on the portal … I was delighted on seeing the covers and spine …

There was more confirmation once I opened the book.  This omnibus was first published in 1967 and this one is a first edition. 

And there is a lovely little foreword by Ross Macdonald himself … and he says this collection is the first omnibus edition of his novels and that he is glad that an omnibus edition was being published during his lifetime … and there is the year at the bottom of the foreword … 1966 … when the foreword was written … the book was published next year …

This is splendid, actually … a favourite author … first omnibus, first edition … a 51-year-old book … the only thing missing is Ross Macdonald’s signature … 

I have hyped this edition up so much that I myself am now scared of reading The Moving Target from this omnibus for which I bought this book in the first place.  I am worried that the page edges may crumble or the cover may tear further.  I might end up buying a standalone copy of The Moving Target after all.