Books have always been my friends. Ever since I remember I have been buying books with whatever pocket money we received or been getting them as gifts.
One of my earliest memories is going to Hobby Corner a second hand bookshop in HazratGanj, Lucknow from school with my elder sisters. We did buy new books from Universal Bookstore too but Hobby Corner meant more books with our resources.
To my utter dismay I found that Hobby Corner had died a natural death long ago and Mr. Moin Beg who I remember as a very dapper young man in the 1960s was sitting on the footpath selling books. I tweeted in dismay that my best friend had shifted 🙁
Love for books was inherited from my parents and I proudly display some of the PG Wodehouse, our favourite author, books that I still have as their remembrance. I have the first edition of Joy in the Morning!
Another PG Wodehouse from 1950, second edition
Summer Lightening and Uncle Fred in the Springtime are my eternal favourites. I was in Std VIII when I was given my first P G Wodehouse to read : Eggs Beans and Crumpets. I was too young, just 12 , to understand it and so put it away. I gave very serious concerns to my parents who felt that anyone who didn’t like P GW couldn’t possibly be normal…….. How could a child of theirs not have and enjoy a sense of humour.
As you can see this was bought from AH Wheeler for a grand old sum of Rs 1.50 probably in 1951.
Good old Plum! I remember when we had just got married my husband and I would be sitting in our corners reading from PG Wodehouse and chuckling away to glory. Had anyone come in they would have wondered at our mental health.
This was my birthday present from Amma in 1969. I have kept it very carefully.
In fact Amma read Enid Blyton books right till her end.
This is from 1970 from my sisters
From my eldest sister sometime in 69-70 when I read Enid Blyton
This is from the 1970s too gifted on my birthday by my best friend Neena Singh
Every concievable space in my house is overflowing with our books MashAllah. I am fortunate that my husband loves reading too.
Fxipkart’s made it easier of course.
I have very eclectic tastes in reading and have read everything from classics to comics. When we were in school my parents made sure we read at least one classic for every 2-3 novels that we read. I remember enjoying Earle Stanley Gardners and Modesty Blaise. My sisters and I adored Westerns and my eldest sister still has the complete collection of Sudden, The Outlaw by Oliver Strange.
I don’t think except for sic-fi which I don’t quite care for there is any author or genre which I have nitride or at least attempted to read.
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And now the baton has passed on to the next generation and if possible my daughter is crazier about books than I am.
