Hand it to me for being the mistress of trite. I’d thought of titling this post as Oops! I did it again…simply because I missed out on the day this blog completed three years. Three years and as disappearing acts. And no title to this post. Yet.
Anyways, there was a book fair in town and can it be in anyway that I not visit it?
I did of course, but it was such a quick, hurried and harried visit that I could not buy as if there was no tomorrow, which there wasn’t as I’d gone there on the last day. It was however heartening to see so many Karachi’ites turn up at the Expo Centre. Mean bro said it was mostly sight-see-ers, and I was adamant I saw a shopping bag in each visitors hand. True to his being mean, he said people usually collect brochures and pamphlets from such fairs. 'How can you be sure it was freebies, besides I saw and got none,' I made an attempt at winning the argument. 'How can you be sure they did actually buy books,' pat came the reply, 'besides it was such a crowded affair people could have taken an empty shopping bag and stuffed it with stuff unnoticed.' Such optimism, what can I say?
Back to what I bought. I got Raageh Omar’s Revolution Day for S. Edward Said’s Out of Place, Orhan Pamuk’s Snow, Anita Desai’s Voices in the City and Edward deBono’s I am Right, You are Wrong. I soo looked forward to replenishing my supply of chick-lit with The Devil Wears Prada but it was selling like hot cakes and wasn’t available at the time. So, I got meself no chick-lit.
Some days back I had discovered the Bargain Basement at Liberty Books. I go crazy every time I go there, which is frequent, considering it’s just a PKR 20 + 20 rickshaw ride away. And then I deposit my latest accumulations at work or plead a colleague to take it with them, collect it the next day and smuggle my horde home, book by book, trying to ward off Mom’s wrath.
I email myself links and neatly organize them all in a separate folder marked ‘Reads’. My desktop is pock-marked with .pdf files which are various other downloaded reads. I book mark webpages into folders in hopes of making good use of them all one day.
I should either hibernate away in winters, mild as they are in Karachi, or there should be more hours to a day. Or I could simply do with trying to be more organised, methodical and all that boring stuff. Yawn.
14 comments:
The book fair was really, really good. I just wished the prices were more affordable. And people were purchasing like crazy - especially teachers and principals who wanted to stock their libraries, which was of course a heartening sight. I only bought a couple of books but hopefully this event will be held on an annual basis at least!
During the past few years, more than once I have visited such exhibitions, not for reading books, for reading the visiters. My experience has been disheartening. No more to say.
SE: Why annual, make it monthly, semesterly...anything more frequent. btw did you know that Urdu Bazar too has book fairs? I always learn of it days later...and from people who knew but never availed the golden oppurtunity.
HTN: Sir, why disheartening? You sound like mean bro, sans the mean element.
Saeed, Mom's wrath is anything but to laugh at. Take my word for it.
Really? Book fairs at Urdu bazaars? When, where? And how come we book lovers never get to hear abt them?
I feel like an illiterate now.
SE: I heard it once long ago. And each day I htink of calling up this very sweet uncle at the Pak American book centre and ask about it...and forget. my very bad!
Saadat: Why?
I don't know who you are or anything about you.... just came here on a random click.... but a book lover :D
I myself love reading by cuz of the busy schedule has long left the books behind.... now i wait for the beginning of the month to get the many magazines i have subscribed..... love the idea of hybernating in winters, therez something about reading while lying in the bed, tucked away in a warm blanket with your fav book/mag :)
Hey! We have the same template :P (Though I've altered the images on mine a bit :P)
Salaamz Sis.,
ANQ sez you missed her b'day!
I can identify with the smuggling one book at a rtime thingy...wifey does a "bailna" everytime I walk in with a new book, with the price tag removed...
"Why couldn't you have bought a nice shirt instead...you have none to wear to work!"
Or, more poignantly, "Have you finished the ones you brought last month, and the month before that, and the...."
She always brings up the books I stole away from you prior you leaving, saying I took them away from you, and never got around to reading them...it was with a view to defeating this line of firing that I read "The picture of Dorian Gray".
I have since resorted to smuggling one book at a time, or taking them all in late at night, and throwing them in the empty spaces behind the books. Months later, when in front of her eyes, I take them out, one at a time, she cannot deny my assertion that the book was always there, and that I had bought it waaaay back in 1999!
Oh, and I have a few books by Mr. De Bono that I have not yet taken out from behind those books....read him and let me know if its worth the trouble~!
p.s. never thought you and I needed to read stuff on that title!
Zag: Hey, welcome. No turns are wrong, just left and right...and what doing any work in winters would just kill the spirit of hibernatiing...it's sleep...throughout winters. Or stay in bed, inactive. :D
Epoppie: Yeah, I noticed. Been planning to customise my template for ages...would get round to it one of these days.
Bhai: No fair, you know there is no way in the world I would miss me darling's b'day. I got a card put in my phone to call her up. I was only terrible becuz the reception at work is terrible and by the time i reach home I am dead tired. Been trying again today...just got round to apologies to Bhabi before me cell died on me. urghh!!!
LOL...you are so predictable when it comes to your princess...:)
Really, she hardly even knows what a birthday is...all she knows is it calls for a cake, and we got her that...kept your slice till today btw....
Why do I feel like an illiterate? I have no idea. That's enough, I guess, to prove my jahalat!
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