I don’t buy books anymore. For ages I used to buy novels that I’d read over & over again. I used to be a book work, reading most of my free time. At first comics and then novels. I love non-fiction but I do also read fiction on occasion. With easier access to the internet books went on the backburner but I still did read a bit. I stopped buying them though – spending Rs. 300-500 on a good title was stupid as India forgets to lower prices to more reasonable rates as the years go by.
Instead what I did find was a used book store and a discount book store. I was happy as I got most of the stuff that I wanted and a reasonable price Rs.75-99 was the usual rates. Hmm, i could buy 3 or 4 more books for the price of 1 at the usual book stores! I slowly built a good library of books. However both the stores have closed down (no clue as to why) and even that outlet was gone for me.
But yes, it has been ages since I found myself in an actual book store and that’s where I was today and I spent just 6 or 7 minutes browsing through their shelves before I found the late Christopher Hitchen’s memoirs – titled cheekily as Hitch-22! The book was published in June 2010, and was later nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award. Touring for the book was cut short later the same month so that he could begin treatment for newly diagnosed oesophageal cancer.
I’ve just started reading this book and got 20 pages done while sitting with a coffee in a cafe this morning. It’s very interesting and entertaining and, I must say, some sadness. Especially when you read the Prologue with Premonitions. I’m going to take my time with this book and read it over the next week. I’ll give you my review post that.
