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.