Tuesday, August 10, 2004

From stories to story books :-)

It was a good and bad day, both at extremes. Day was as chaotic as it could be. Everything that could fail technically was failing left and right ! Its just one of those days where all Murphy's laws are proved beyond belief..
But as I was coming back home, decided to stop by this place called Twice Sold Tales. For the uninitiated, its the book store in Seattle which has at least 8 cats ! I mean, i don't get the concept but they must really love cats ! And considering that its a chain in Seattle with 4 stores, they All must really love cats :-)
I like that shop because its like 'Blossom's book shop in good old Bangalore. Now Blossoms is by far one of my favourite haunts in the city. Any evening I had any time (and money) to spare, you could find me in that cubby hole just off Church st.
Paperback books, second hand books in excellent condition and collector's items like coffee table books you will not find anywhere. I mean, Heaven :-)
But I digress. So, i went to this book shop to look around. Partially it was intentional detour as I wanted to take a look at some Terry Pratchett's. I had been hearing about this so much from a dear friend that I have to say I was tempted to give it a shot. So, i was looking around for any non series book by this author. But what I did find was the first book in the Discworld series.. So, i said what the heck, lets get hooked (that is if i find it really worth getting hooked to :p )!
That was that and I was all set to go when I decided to take a peek at my fav author's section.. Wodehouse :-))))
And guess what, I found this brilliant book by him, almost a collector's item. "Wodehouse on Crime". I looked at the cover and fell in love with it. Its such a beautiful brand new, hard back piece with the subtitle 'A Dozen tales of Fiendish Cunning' !
I mean, fiendish cunning ?? Hmmm... scratch scratch (is this for real?).
Foreword by Isaac Asimov. That did it, I just had to buy it !
I mean, a foreword by Asimov is not something on a Wodehouse that you come across very often.. It is a collector's piece :-)
I take pride in another 2 such books that I have, a Wodehouse dedicated to Agatha Christie and an Agatha Christie dedicated to Wodehouse. I mean, where do you see such things anymore :-)))

This is an excerpt from the foreword - "Crime is not a term most of us would link with that gentlest of humourist, PG Wodehouse, but it is a fact that, perhaps affected by a boyhood diet of the latest Sherlock Holmes as they come off press, he was rarely able to keep his characters within the law. In this collection, the heroes and heroines indulge in gunplay, theft, assault with sharp instruments, arson, fraud and extortion; we shrink from revealing what the bad guys get to. Bertie Wooster, Jeeves, Lord Emsworth, any number of Mulliner friends-and-relations, and the arch fiendess Roberta (Bobbie) Wickham stand shown at last in their true criminious colours. "
Maybe one day I would have collected all Wodehouse novels there are out in this world. It is still but a dream ...
:-)

2 comments:

sisyphus said...

and which store is this?

QuaTros said...

Blossoms is definitely a nice place to go! Bangalore has recently come up with quite a few new stores like Crossword, that gives you a feeling between a cross over between a library and a bookstore. :-)