bookish

Sometimes you get good books and sometimes you get bad books. Invariably the bad ones are slow to read and the good ones finish fast. One wants to pick up and read at all times and the reading time per pickup also improves. Sometimes there are a string of duds and sometimes the batting average just shoots up. I generally try and read one book at a time these days. In the good old days that I used to travel by train, I would have one for the train and the other for the night. So I always try and have one or two books ready to read after I have finished one. In fact the best pressure to read is when you are reading a good book and you have another promising read as a follow up. The second book pushes me to read the first one faster. I feel like a kid at Christmas Eve dying to tear open the wrapper early morning on his gifts. He can’t wait for the night to get over.
When you have a string of these lined up the reading rate gets pushed amazingly high. That’s why I keep the in line books at my bedside. They encourage me to read much more. Sometimes sacrificing a bit of sleep in the process.
Every time we travel in the train I used to see the James Hadley chase books at the book stores. I wondered what they would be like. At the time Johny Gaddar was released, it was said to have been inspired by the JH Chase series. The movie was fast with things happening constantly. From then on I wanted to read atleast one of these books. Having been a late starter in reading, the spy novels and other fictions completely passed me by. I never felt the use or the pleasure of reading fiction, especially spy fiction. So this time when we went to Jabalpur, I managed to pick up a James Hadley Chase novel at a railway book shop. Now I know why it’s a bog hit. Straight story line with fast pace and simple English. I was a bit disappointed with the s+ex in it. There isn’t any! It is limited to ‘he then had a ravishing night with her’. That’s it. The least I thought that these books could do was give two pages of description. I mean else could enliven dull train journeys for the multitude of passengers. But this is strictly James Bond stuff. Lovely women, handsome men, 30 minutes of foreplay and suggestion and 2 seconds of the real thing. Haha. The plot was bumkum and it plays out like a b grade thriller. It did take some patience for me to get through with it. I wanted to know what happens at the end. Answer – nothing really.
On books – when we got the raddi wala to come home and take the old newspapers, we also asked him if he takes old books. Will he pay per piece? He said nopes, he pays per kilo except …. if it is a mills and boon. That is something he will pay per piece. That still manages to sell. Rest is raddi. Ooh. My poor historians, philosophers and management consultants. You might be worth your weight in gold but your words don’t match up to the humble mills and boon. Which reminds me of my favourite saying – the markets can be wrong longer than you can remain solvent.