This time's visit to the Hyderabad Book Fair was almost after a 5-year break...I regularly visit second hand book stalls in Hyderabad and purchase books and as for new books, I have my trusted online bookshops where substantial discounts are offered...and even I used to visit the Book Fair, I always was interested in second hand book stalls...and once long back Shruti had gifted me a gorgeous book on Salvador Dali's paintings which she bought on instalment from a Kolkata-based book distributor who had a stall there...and anyway, this time, I hadn't planned the visit...Shruti and Mamoon were in Shimoga at that time, and I was to leave for Shimoga the next day to join them...I wanted to buy some books as gifts for my gurus in Shimoga and remembered that the Book Fair was still on and thought I'd go there first...and since I decided to buy these books almost at the last minute, I didn't have any time to order books online...and so I went to the People's Plaza on Necklace Road where the Fair was on...since I reached there at 2.00 in the afternoon, the crowd was sparse and I enjoyed the early emptiness of the stalls...but I couldn't find anything refreshing at the stalls selling new books and concentrated on second hand book stalls...and soon ran out of patience...I was looking for Robert Parker books and couldn't locate any...my friend Vinod is a patient and diligent book hunter and had found some Parkers in the Fair...lucky chap...I was drifting around aimlessly just looking at the stalls and found a stall which had suitably and enticingly shabby looking books...why not go in? I went in and was totally and happily surprised to see a shelf full of second-hand Ian Rankin books, and the best part was, each one was priced only Rs.50/-...this was a bonanza actually...at that point I regretted not making a list of Rankins and carrying a copy with me the same way I did with my Parker books...but nothing could be done and I relied on memory, hoping I would make no double purchases...and carefully started selecting titles...I was able to put together 6 titles...Watchman, The Naming of the Dead, Set in Darkness, Resurrection Men, Flesh Market Close, Let it Bleed...Watchman turned out to be 'a re-issue of Ian Rankin's Classic Hard-to-Find early spy novel'...and so I started reading it first...it is not a Rebus novel though...a police detective called Miles Flint holds fort here...I have reached page 70 now, and am eager to complete it, but am not finding time...and I also discovered that through some luck, four of the remaining five novels are in sequence...Resurrection Men (No. 13), Set in Darkness (No. 14), Flesh Market Close (No. 15), The Naming of the Dead (No. 16)...Let it Bleed comes early in at No. 7...
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