uLaaR

Second batch of friends arrived a few months ago

Vishy Kuruganti2 mins

Bringing 15 boxes of friends home – the post that started it all off. This post recounts the voyage of our second batch of friends, henceforth dubbed as Part 2 of the series.

tintin in the new world cover

In Dec 2011, my brother-in-law brought the second batch of books — to Chennai. So far so good. Since his parents were going to return to US with him, I had a two week deadline to collect the books. Sathish, an ex-colleague and friend, (who has a home in Chennai) picked up the books. Two months later, he brought them to Bangalore. I finally picked them up in Mar 2012. A grand total of 9 boxes but they are all hardbound so quite heavy. I present the list below along with my commentary. As I accumulated these books over the years, I’ve been pretty religious about annotating when (and sometimes ‘where’) I bought the book.

  • Tintin in the new world - Bought at the Stanford Bookstore on Jul 27, 1998 (i.e. the week after moving to the SF Bay Area from Chicago – heady times!)

  • Ambassador’s Journal: John Kenneth Gailbraith - My copy has a green cover and it’s a hardbound too. I’m currently reading this humorous and insightful account and transcribing my favorite bits – JK Galbraith has his very own Galbraith category on my blog.

  • Primal Leadership - Bought in Dec 2005. Seems interesting enough but still remains unread. Found a bookmark from The Lenox Hill Bookstore, NY though it doesn’t prove anything. For the longest time, I was incapable of walking out of a bookstore without purchasing at least one book.

  • Mastering the Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish

  • Hard facts, dangerous half-truths & total nonsense - Professor Sutton gave a talk at the Yahoo campus and this was a freebie.

  • The complete works of O. Henry - Bought in April ’95 (Chicago years), arguably my only bibliophile book and warrants a separate post for one other reason – suspense!

  • All things bright and beautiful by James Herriot - Bought second-hand (undated).

  • The new industrial state by John Kenneth Galbraith - Bought in Mar 2000.

  • Bhagavad Gita (in Hindi) - Bought in Dec 2004 from Birla Temple, Hyderabad. Traveled to Sunnyvale, CA – spent a few years in a San Jose attic, a year in a Cupertino garage, a few months in Chennai and finally to our Bangalore apartment. Yes – a well-travelled hardbound.

There’s more good news for the rest of our book friends in my sister’s garage. Another ex-colleague and friend (Ajay) is on a business trip to the Bay Area and has agreed to bring back a ‘significant number’ of books. How significant? I won’t answer lest it jinxes things. Stay tuned… part 3 in this series is not too far away.