Books.

I let off some steam at a bookstore. I saw an intriguing sign on a highway that said “Book Sale – No book over $3!”, and decided to go for it, a second time. The first time, I had taken the suggested exit, and having not found the bookstore, had found a good hot dog shop instead. One of those place which has a “This is NOT BurgerKing – You either have it MY way, or you don’t have it at all.” Oh well, but I am digressing.
The book store dealt in books released by libraries, and so the books were cheap, and after 2 hours, I found myself richer by 21 books, and poorer by around $55.
-I got the 7 books in “The Chronicles of Narnia”, the first of which is now my bedside book.
-I got two Le Carré’s – “The Constant Gardener” and “Single & Single”. I love him the most among folks that write spy stories.
-I discovered Milan Kundera’s “Ignorance” hiding behind two books. He is one of my favourites among authors who ramble on and use a story as an excuse to converse with their readers.
- I got José Saramago’s “All The Names”. I was impressed by Blindness, and so I decided to give this a shot.
- I got Kazuo Ishiguro’s “When We Were Orphans” – an author I have always wanted to read.
- I got a Terry Pratchett – “Theif of Time” – some people say he is funny and intelligent.
- I got Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods” – unfinished business. I once borrowed this from a library and never finished it.
- I got Douglas Adams’ “The Salmon of Doubt” – so what if I have read it?
- I got Saul Bellow’s “Ravelstein” – Free Fall was good, and so I am hoping this one will be good too.
- I got “The Great American Ghost Stories” , which has 50 ghost stories, one for each American state.
- I got H.R.F. Keating’s “Bribery, Corruption Also” – an Inspector Ghote Mystery – out of curiosity.
- And then I got Rohinton Mistry’s “A Fine Balance” – I so want to complete reading this!
- David Davidar’s “The House of Blue Mangoes” – Davidar used to write a weekly column in The Hindu, and I used to wait expectantly for Sundays, so I could read his column. I hope the book is at least half as good.
- Manil Suri’s “The Death of Vishnu” – Suri is a mathematician at the University of Maryland. I want to see how good a mathematician can be at spinning a yarn.

Now to read them, one at a time. I won’t feel that I don’t have enough to read at home, and I don’t have to worry about library fines.

As for the exam, I think I did pretty well in most of it. I got the timing all wrong, and the order too, and ended up writing the answers to the questions related to my major last, which meant I did not have too much time for it. I bungled up two questions, and I had to redo them, which meant I lost a lot of time on something I had not planned for. I have to keep my fingers crossed and hope everything turns out okay.