If there is one thing that makes people like me go weak-kneed, it is not the sight of clothes on mannequins or jewellery, but books—with their attractive covers beckoning, calling out, grabbing eyeballs ever so gently from wherever they are, but persistently till you give in! Whether temptingly displayed on the stalls at the entrance in one of those fast vanishing brick-and-mortar bookstores or via emails from online sites announcing new titles, you can be sure the damage will be done and your wallet emptied! Resolving never to buy a book again never works—in fact it has the opposite effect.
Book lovers will confess to buying more books than they can or have read but the pull is eternal! And due to technology, that time thief, stealing a few hours to catch up on one’s recent buys is easier said than done. There was a time in my childhood when I used to average one book a day. Books used to be hidden inside textbooks and read in stealth in the dead of night after homework was finished in double-quick time because they had to be returned the next day to the friend who had loaned it.
As if buying one copy of a book isn’t enough, sometimes one inadvertently ends up buying two of the same because the first was bought so long ago and one’s memory is all fogged up. That’s when one feels it was a lot better in the days when fewer titles were released and one knew every book in one’s possession.
The periodic cleaning of the bookshelf is a sacred ritual when books are dusted and rearranged in the order of one’s changing tastes.
How-tos and biographies may have captured our imagination at one point giving way to humour, history and philosophy later. The books done with are kicked upstairs (with all due respect) for want of space and the current favourites kept within easy reach. The older the book, the greater the heartbreak. They may have come cheap having been bought for a rupee or less from pavement hawkers or second-hand bookstalls. But can one ever put a price on those old or out-of-print titles, which with age literally begin to crumble into pieces or come apart at the binding.
There is yet another secret haunt for book lovers—the den of rare-book sellers. The wait for the bookseller to lay his hands on the book you are dying to read from among the many piles in his collection and the unalloyed joy on hearing the words, “I have managed to locate the book you wanted” is enough to make you drop everything and make a dash to collect the tome that has been after your heart.
Sudha Umashanker
Email: sudha.ganesha@gmail.com