Last year, Best Book Stall had this big sale sometime in August. This year, it’s MR Book Stall’s turn.
Advance warning of the Sale came sometime last month. I had gone to their Panjagutta outlet, to pick up a book stored for me, and there was this huge Agatha Christie collection, all books in very good condition, paperbacks for 50, and hardcover Book Club editions for 60 rupees each. Considering that the books were piled upto my shoulder-height, it should have been the complete Christie collection. Hell, it even included the autobiography. “There are more books coming.” The fellow sitting there warned me.
Two days later, I was in Abids, and paid a quick visit to MR again, just to find out if there were any more of the Sandman/Manga comics in stock ( I am usually dripping Optimism, when it comes to finding comics ). I got a bundle of Gary Larsen instead, and then the Big News.
“We have a new godown nearby.” He says, very nonchalantly. I can feel him watching my reaction, as he adds – “Almost a million books. All new. It’s still being sorted out.”
I was sceptical. A million books? Im-freaking-possible!
He asked me to come over the next day, which was a Sunday, so that he could take me to that warehouse personally. Okie dokie, that’s what I did. A short auto-ride, a long traffic jam, down a flight of stairs to….
Paradise.
Ok, so I have seen books being piled before, right? Last year’s sale was good enough, and I was there as they were pricing the goods. I had seen order being created out of chaos, as mountains of unsorted tomes were laid neatly in rows on shelves and tables. I had even chipped in at Best, pointing out which books were “sale-able” and what were not.
But this was insane. No way I could even think of sitting down and going through all the stuff at one go. It would require three to four days of dedicated browsing ( allotting the max-patience limit of six hours per day ) to find out what was there. Trying hard not to scream with glee, I took a walk around ( actually, it was more like hopping around, there were simply too many piles ) They showed me the science-fiction/fantasy books, which contained gems I had been searching for since I was born. ( Seems like it anyway ) And hallelujah! The prices were perfect! Mad paperbacks for 20 Rupees each, Peanuts paperbacks 20 each, all fiction priced between 40 and 60 rupees, depending on the thickness and how old the editions were.
There are tonnes of encyclopaedias, and Time-Life compendiums, and Readers’ Digest collections, and loads and loads of girlie fiction, the ones with the muscle-bound hunks and luscious females on the covers. There are also leather-bound collected editions of the Classics. Like, you have 5 Mark Twain books together, sleekly bound, for 150 rupees. A seven-book Robert Louis Stevenson collection for 200 rupees. I found two books on Norman Rockwell, an artist I have admired a long time, but had been unable to get anything of his that came at a decent price. My Philip K Dick and Robert Heinlein collection is officially complete. ( The ebooks don’t count )
I went there again yesterday, and filled two cartons with stuff I wanted, and paid a small deposit, because I am really short of money this month, and I have a trip to Bangalore to make next weekend too. There were a couple of ladies there yesterday, with kids and husbands in tow, and they picked up something like seven cartons full of children’s books.
One beautiful thing I saw and didn’t buy and that tortures me was a HUGE fully-painted version of Peter and the Wolf. Shucks, I should have put it on my pile. I think those ladies must have bought it by now.
Ah! What be life without purpose – and Big Book Sales?
