Book buys

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After being lumped up the whole day in front of my computer, I thought I’d go out and get some swallow of fresh air. So I went for a book fair in Vashi, opposite Centre One. I wasn’t really expecting anything spectacular, because, truly the best deals I have seen so far are at the Strand book sales and Daryaganj. Very rarely has anything come close to being as remarkable as these – both in choice of literature available and the prices they are available at.

But surprisingly, I got a couple of books I wanted to dive in to as soon as I reached home. (But unfinished business beckons, and that’s the very worst kind of beckoning.)

The first one is ‘We’ll Laugh Again’ by Art Buchwald, who is astonishingly chuckleworthy. He is such a charming political humorist (or satirist, depending how you read him.) I’ll never forget the way he portrayed the Potomac in some of his columns – fulcrum of poetry, politics, and poofy presidential peccadilloes. (I think I am recollecting my impressions of 'Whose rose garden is it anyway?')

The second book, ‘Small Wonder,’ is a collection of essays by Barbara Kingsolver. I have been meaning to read her ‘Poisonwood Bible’ for a long time now, but the book has always been a little out of reach. Since I don’t think I can assimilate any kind of deep, conceptually challenging thoughts yet, a collection of essays would be just right for me to ease in to the world of reading.

So, that was an hour that was spent well. Now, all I need to do is find time to read these books and then, hopefully, write about them. I think that is what is going to drive me for a while – the motivation to share my impressions on what I read.

Probably, the next few weeks will see me put up smottles of these books on the blog.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Looking fwd to reading them :)
10:28 PM
Aditi said…
you seem to have got some interesting buys. Do put up the reviews real soon!
7:01 PM
Aries said…
"We'll laugh again" was frankly disappointing when I read it some years ago. That preponderance of the Sept 11 theme through most of the first half wasnt very Artesque. I actually got so tired of the same theme that I decided to read the book backwards - it's decidedly better off that way, since they're anyway discrete short articles mostly unrelated to each other.

Arabic purists would have been impressed.
2:43 PM
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