Thank God for the Competition!

You have no idea how I've fantasized of something like this ever since I read this post. Being out of Hyderabad, I asked the beloved ex-professor to keep her eyes open for any whisper of such riches. Two years have passed in vain. But one lazy Sunday not one month ago, all my fantasies abruptly came true. The competition, you see, has been on an unimaginably massive spring cleaning drive. Ergo, quite unfortunately, some the best deals I've EVER got on books have not been at my store. (If you're counting second-hand bookstores in Hyderabad whence come most of my books, nowhere else is really a good deal but that's another post.) Sample the kind of discount I mean — on a cover price of 735, flat 80% discount. The least discount on anything I bought was 70%!

As you'll see, most of these books are the stuff my salacious forays into bookstores, mine or not, are made of. The question might then arise — why, Extempore, would you never give me deals like these at your store? The reason's simple, dearie. We never have to get rid of books. Enough said though — it's not quite right to be ungrateful for unexpected generosity. I'm resisting the urge to list the books under neat sub-headings the way I normally would but I cannot resist organizing them category-wise any way!

Ted Hughes selected by Simon Armitage

Wilfred Owen selected by Jon Stallworthy

Alfred, Lord Tennyson selected by Mick Imlah

George Herbert selected by Jo Shapcott

(All four part of the fabulous Faber and Faber Poet-to-Poet series)

A choice of Kipling's Verse selected by T.S Eliot

Out of Fashion ed. by Carol Ann Duffy

The Universal Home Doctor - Simon Armitage

North - Seamus Heaney

Moortown Diary - Ted Hughes

The Elder Statesman - T S Eliot

Ape and Essence - Aldous Huxley

Laughter in the Dark - Vladimir Nabokov

The Final Solution - Michael Chabon

Soldiers of Salamis - Javier Cercas

On Green Dolphin Street - Sebastian Faulkes

First Love and Other Shorts - Samuel Beckett

Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates - Tom Robbins

The Vintage Book of War Fiction ed. by Sebastian Faulks and Jorg Hensgen

Beckett Remembering, Remembering Beckett - a completely yummy collection of unpublished interviews with Beckett and memories of his friends/colleagues.

The New Cut Gang: The Gas-Fitter's Ball - Philip Pullman

Wanted! The Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog - Jeremy Strong

But of course, reviews/observations/poems will follow — I'm currently in a graphic novel and children's literature (more on that sooner) phase though.