next is what?

today i pulled out all my books from the shelve where they were just dumped post that white bugger attack. cleaned all of them, and as usual organized them based on subject area. also, picked up three which i plan to start soon. let me start with poetry first, and it will be followed by travel related books - hopefully.

i have picked up most of the books in my collection from Midland in aurobindo market - my fav weekend haunt. Midland has been my fav book store as it offers flat 20% discount on all books. i have also struck a deal with the owner, an ageing man in his 70's. he will inaugurate any bookshop that i open in future, and in turn he has promised to provide me all inputs on how to run a profitable bookshop. hmm..., so after that 20% discount he offers me, he does makes profit!

i bought the Beastly Tales from Midland, Best-Loved Poems from Landmark Gurgaon, and Last Bus to Vasco directly from the author. PK and i saw him sitting near the main entrance of pragati maidan during the Feb 08 world book fair. this is the first book i my collection which is signed by the author, and we had not requested for that!

new additions to my collection

i enjoy reading. i started with classics and gradually developed a liking for other genres. but till date, after having read books on different subjects [including anthropology and public administrations], i never developed a liking for since fiction.

i have a somewhat enviable collection of books. books that i have collected over a period of time. some i bought from dehradoon while in college; from middle east where i worked as a teacher; from delhi, goa, bangalore, pondicherry, hyderabad, and kolkatta.

there are many in my collection which i have not yet started reading. and even though there is a backlog, the collection keeps growing. to put an end to my buying spree, and to finish reading the current stock, i have decided not to purchase any new book next year [one of my new year resolutions]. around 15 books are currently untouched in the collection.

the resolution is now written on a paper after a lot of thought, so there no chance of modifying it to include a clause of 'buying a new book under certain circumstances.' new year is yet to begin, and just thought what if i run out of books to read after i finish reading the ones in my backlog. so today i purchased few more books so that i am not starved next year [and i hope they don't feel deprived of human touch next year too!]

this time the books i bought are a mix of old classics and contemporary classics. few i have already read but just thought of including them in my collection. here's the list:

• A Room With A view - have read Passage to India by the same author
• The Longest Journey
• A Clockwork Orange
• Lolita
• Songs of Solomon - have read SULA
• A Portrait of The Artist As A Young Man
• Aesop's Fables
• 1984 - read Animal Farm
• The Catcher in the Rye
• Madam Bovary
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Dubliners
• Three Men in a Boat
• To Kill a Mocking Bird
• Middlemarch
• Tess of the D'urbervilles - have already read it along with Far From The Madding Crowd, Jude the Obscure, Return of The Native, Mayor of Casterbridge, The Woodlanders, A Pair of Blue Eyes, and Two on a Tower by Hardy
• Emma - have read this along with Persuation, Pride and Prejudice, and Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
• Love in the time of cholera
• Oliver Twist
• The Great Gatsby
• One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
• Lady Chatterley's Lover
• To Catch A Smile
• The Best of Roald Dahl
• Short Stories by Sadat Manto
• Breakfast at Tiffany's
• The Crooked LinePoet Saints of India
• Inscets are like you and me except some of them have wings

let me see how many of these i am able to complete next year. i wish myself good luck!