Sanctuary Of Random Keystrokes

We were at the second-had book fair at the Dam Square today. While English was rather poorly represented, it didn’t stop us from spending time in the company of some beautiful old books.

And yes the irony of English paperbacks selling cheaper than Dutch comics wasn’t lost on us either.

I was a little surprised to see the amount of mainstream popular Western culture that has been (and is) accessible in Dutch. Back home, if you know just your ‘native’ language, you can almost be sure you are cut-off from the world at large.

I am not sure if it was the weather, but it felt like the book fair must have seen better days. I wonder for how many years will it continue to have legs – given the general decline of reading coupled with the rise of the e-book.

Second-hand books can be strange. Often it is the affectionately handwritten dedications on the title page that give me a start. Occasionally, all sorts of things tumble out of them – old movie tickets, grocery bills, postcards, handwritten notes – the works.

A book that was a Christmas present for someone in London in the 1930s somehow makes it to a second-hand bookstore in Bangalore and almost finds itself on my bookshelf. Surely it must have an interesting story to tell – apart from the one printed in it.

Here is another remarkable coincidence that happend this week. I picked up an old copy of Oliver Twist along with a copy of The 1982 Annual World’s Best SF. The 1964 edition of a 19th century Dickens novel shouldn’t ordinarily be related in any way to a compilation of science fiction short stories from 1982. But to my surprise the latter begins with Dickens’ famous lines from A Tale of Two Cities. Let me reproduce the first paragraph here:

“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” That was Dickens’ comment on the crisis of the 18th Century. It could apply now to the outlook for many periods of the 20th. There were the times just before the great wars – and just after. There were the times before the economic crisis that have racked this century… the times of ideological debate, of fog and confusion… times confronting the advent of surprising new scientific achievements.

The remarkability quotient would be so much higher if the book I had just picked was A Tale of Two Cities itself!

This is a great time to stock up on books for the rest of the year. The Strand Book Festival is on at the Chinnaswamy Stadium till 28th Dec. Their selection of books is a bit hotchpotch and somewhat esoteric. I would go there for random surfing or for discovering something new and unexpected but not to buy a book I’ve been looking to pick for a long time.

Landmark (I speak for the branch in the Forum mall) is also offering a good discount on books these days – provided you pick one from a big pile of books earmarked for festival sale.

If you miss the bus, there is always Blossom on Church Street for year long discounts.

Now as far as online presence goes, none of these shops have anything decent to offer. Botched up software (the last time I visited strandbookstall.com, they claimed that I had 261 items worth Rs. 92636.00 in my shopping cart!) and poor service (ladmarkonnet offers 30-45 days of shipping time on most of their titles) make sure I keep my credit card in my wallet.

I recently discovered flipkart.com, and the one time I’ve ordered a book off them, I’ve been delighted. They seem to be the ‘small guys’ who care about books and customers. The best part – they offer free shipping on all books! Worth a shot.

p.s. Directions to the Strand Book Festival – if you are coming from St. Mark’s Road go straight down Anil Kumble Circle and take a left from the Infantry Road crossing. Go down some 50-100 meters and you’ll see an entry into the Chinnaswamy Stadium (gates 17 and 18 if I am not mistaken) where the book festival is.

p.p.s. I moved jobs and am now working at cricinfo.com. This means I’ve also been shopping for a lot of non-fiction: