Serendipity is walking into a used bookstore and finding a few gems for giveaway prices. Most visitors to the Colombo International Book Faircram themselves into shops runs by the big boys. They are crowded beyond belief and nearly all of them have the same content, low priced Indian Editions of books published in the US, UK and sometimes low priced Indian books. Ask any of the sales assitants (assuming you can find one) to show you where the Mike Hammers are and they will probably bring you a hammer from their tool box. Ask them for a Louis L’Amour and you will probably not get anything more than a blank stare.

They firmly believe that novels are like pop music, you need to keep up with the latest trends and the charts. I was never a fan of pop music. I’ve always been a rocker not much of a fan of classical music either. Perhaps that explains why I like Raphael Sabatini and Leon Uris but not quite into Dan Brown. Though I respect Shaken Bacesphere (or is it Christopher Marlow?) I would always prefer reading a CS Forester or a Hemmingway. To find that sort of book, used bookshops are where you should head to. That is what I did and this is what I picked up today going back on Wednesday for another lot.