chasing bawa

I know, I know, I just stocked up on Persephones last week and here I am again, writing another list of books I acquired. That’s the problem with running into second hand bookshops. This time it was the Oxfam bookshop on Marylebone High Street. When I was working near there, I used to pop in every few weeks just to see what there was, but these days I rarely go near there, so when I had the chance last Saturday, I scooted right in. And look what I found.

The Tenderness of Wolves by Steff Penney
A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Indian Clerk by David Leavitt
Maharanis by Lucy Moore
Kapitza in Cambridge and Moscow edited by J.W. Boag, P.E. Rubinin and D. Shoenberg

In the book blogging world, people’s thoughts and prospective reading material have slowly turned towards Autumn and the slightly chilly. Considering how much I read, it’s never crossed my mind to read seasonally before. And so many people do so, which surprised me at first, yet makes so much sense. And all of a sudden I felt like searching out Steff Penney’s The Tenderness of Wolves which has had so many great reviews and won the 2006 Costa Book of the Year. And the day after I put it on my wish list, I spy it in the Oxfam bookshop. Once again, I cry fate! And David Leavitt’s The Indian Clerk about the Indian mathematician Ramanujan together with the book on Russian physicist Kapitza is a no brainer, both early twentieth century history of science related books (that includes fiction too!) And the Ishiguro is one I haven’t read but have heard good things about, and Maharanis because I like reading about the Indian Sub-continent and if it’s about the 1930s even better. Pretty good selection and all for £13.