With the high cost of books, book collecting seems like the perfect way of translating the outlay on your library back into money. But for the serious collector, this hobby is a lot like playing the stockmarket, with the added benefit of spending time with the worlds most interesting minds.
The bad news is that many who start off in a bid to find Shakespeares First Folio and retire rich, end up with useless copies and a hole in their pockets. The good news is that by the time this happens, they are enjoying the larger pleasures of reading and settle for interesting instead of interest-earning books.
The serious book collector must have a genuine love of reading. Book dealer Rob Hampson has a simple rule of thumb: If youre reading fifty books a year, youre in college. If youre reading a hundred, youre an enthusiast. If youre reading two hundred and youre not a dealer, youre in the wrong profession.
The next step is to decide what youre going to focus on. You have at your disposal the whole sea of literature science fiction, 19th century poetry, Caribbean writing, childrens literature,modern first editions.... Then there are collectors who specialise in dust jackets, book bindings, miniaturised books, even endpapers. You can spend as little as Rs 2,000 a month, or you could run up a monthly bill of Rs 4 lakh.
Dismiss the myth of torn, tattered books with cracked spines and faded gilt runes. The perfect book is rare, in demand, and untouched by human hand. In fact, says amateur collecting zealot Farah Sirohi, never flip through a rare book even if you want to read it. Buy another, cheaper copy, she advises. If you damage the first edition, you could drop the price by as much as 50 per cent.
P Bilimoria, co-owner of Shimlas Antique Books and Ephemera bookstore, is in Delhi on one of his buying sprees the best man to buttonhole for an advice on what to look out for.
Paperbacks are bad because they fall apart easily, he says. Hardcovers, now if youve got a first edition Cormac McCarthy, but no dust jacket, that slashes profits down to one-third. If the jacket is stained or torn, thats 10 per cent off. And the pages shouldnt be foxed, dog-eared, torn or underlined.
Next, you have to ascertain whether youve got a first edition or not. Publishers have different ways of denoting a first from complex hieroglyphics on the copyright page to no indication at all! This has often been likened by embittered collectors to trying to find a misplaced comma in Finnegans Wake, but it remains one of the acid tests of a books collectability.
India is one of the best countries for a collector, smiles K D Singh, proprietor of The Bookshop in the capital. Most readers have no idea that a first edition Michael Crichton, or Arundhati Roy is a potential goldmine so the serious bookworm has fewer competitors to deal with. You can also strike gold at the book fairs held in Delhi and Calcutta but watch out for remaindered books. While theyre great reading value, they have no place in a hardcore collection.
Though Delhi has a few bookstalls that deal in antique books, these are run by owners who have at best a fair, and at worst, an inflated, idea of their worth. Still, the Oriental Book House in Daryaganj is worth rummaging through, as is an obscure little place in Old Delhi called Patels Rare Book Store. Ask around in Paranthe Wali Galli for the address. Calcutta also offers some good bookstores, most notably in College Street and Free School Street.
But the happiest hunting grounds lie in Shimla, Nainital, Darjeeling, Shillong and a few other hill stations. Never pass up an army library sale, offers Bilimoria, Ive bought some fabulous books there. Including an illustrated Lord of the Rings a limited special edition. Whats the price tag on that one?
Bilimoria grins. Its not for sale, he says. Im mostly in it for the business. But once in a while, I find something I want badly for its own sake. I take it home, and gloat in privacy.
Nilanjana S Roy A sorcerer full of secrets
Franz Harary has made a NASA satellite disappear. Now hes got his eye on the moon
Imagine a cow floating in space or the Qutb Minar disappearing in a puff of smoke. Is it really possible to do that? Ask Franz Harary.
There was magic on the lawns of the Capitals Oberoi Continental last week. A 35-year-old American stomped along the poolside, unravelling the small tricks tucked up his sleeve. One moment he was striding purposefully forward in his big black boots with metallic chips inscribed New rock to pluck a rose from the flower bed. The very next he was yanking out a fish from a glass bowl, only to squeeze the squirming piscean into a rolled 50-rupee note. In the background was the local TV crew, trying their very best to get the focus right on his fast-paced manoeuvres.
But these tricks dont count for much with Franz Harary. He is in India on a promotional tour. High on his agenda is an exploration of the market here for high-tech magic art.
Gone are the days when magic was shown to small audiences where, at the smallest sign from the magician, little fellows appeared on stage to endure handkerchiefs being produced from their ears. Harary lugs around 25 tons worth of techie equipment and is accompanied by a core 26-member team. It takes months of engineering, and at least a weeks prep time before the final mega-scale show goes on stage, at an average cost of over Rs 2.5 crore.
I am a techno geek. These are my toys. I can never read for too long, so most of my ideas are born in what I see. I take in the rush of motions, colours and feelings and then think up what to do with it, reveals the artist. The slightly dyslexic Harary says that most of his ideas germinate during long car rides or flights. Long drives freeze my brain and I do my best thinking during that time. I literally create a virtual world in my head and piles of images begin to pop up, says the creator of the much-hyped HIStory tour, in which he had Michael Jackson levitate at live shows across the US. (Some would say that Jackson was spaced out enough to do this one on his own.)
The list of Hararys contributions to music shows, car launches and tournament inaugurations is endless he began his career at 21. He stunned audiences when he impaled a girl with a microphone stand at an Alice Cooper show. On another occasion he conjured up an MD-80 airliner out of thin air. At Spaceport, Florida, he caused mild panic when a NASA space shuttle disappeared as people looked on.
He sure knows how to make magic work. Harary says it is really 45 per cent technology and 55 per cent psychology. I cant give you the actual meat of how I do it but I can tell you, the more intelligent you are, the more of a mark for magic you are, he says, enigmatically. That, if you think about it, is also a useful way of sidelining the They do it with mirrors brigade. If youre not fooled, its because youre not bright enough!
His affair with magic began early. Growing up in Michigan, the young Harary played his first ever trick on his father. As a kid, I used to hate the trumpet lessons my father made me take. So I just taped a couple of lessons, and kept replaying them. Its so easy to fool grown ups. Adults are more preoccupied with information and less concerned with re-exploring, unlike children.
Most people are easy to fool. And I keep changing my methods. Its the same act; I just do it on a grander scale each time, assures Harary, who also writes his own songs and designs the diamond-studded costumes for his show.
It all boils down to a question of cauldrons? the Book of Merlin? druid lore? Nope. It all boils down to the very Nineties concept of time management. Magic happens because somebody wants to make it happen. You always have to be one step ahead of everyone else. I have to always be three seconds ahead of where you are in real time.
Harary started doing magic stunts in public at Michigan College, where he was enrolled on a vocal scholarship. He wiped a trumpet team off the face of the earth and levitated a woman 50 yards above the stage during a show. In 1984 when Michael Jackson burnt his hair during a stunt for a Pepsi commercial, Harary made his pitch. Many calls later, he approached the producer of the Victory tour. And he was hired.
But behind the easy smiles and the clockwork precision of the art form, there are many tense moments. On stage, I am the vehicle for you. One side of the brain talks to the audience and the other coordinates my teams work I keep listening to team members for their instructions. The key is not to let the audience see the showman sweat. Theyll stop believing you. I have to constantly make you believe that I have the ability to do it, he says.
Sometimes, though, even magicians go through a bad spell. Harary recalls some of the well, ups and downs of his career. On an open air show during the Victory tour, we performed the same levitation trick on Michael Jackson. But the wind was very strong and Michael started flying in circles uncontrollably up in the air. The organisers stood there, watching their 600-million-dollar showman flying in the wind.
Nothing excites Harary more than a good illusion created. Magic is cool. I would like to make the moon vanish. I havent yet figured how to do it. He explains why it might be a trifle difficult. Here in a game, he says, using his hands to measure the space between us, we are talking about five degrees. The moons far away. And that means controlling a bigger area.
They say you cant teach an old dog new tricks, but they left magicians out of that old saw. Harary might disappear like one of his illusions if he cant find a sponsor in India, but perhaps he should stall his departure long enough to meet our very own P C Sorcar. If the two got together, you might just look up one fine night and watch the moon vanish. Before you can even say Abracadabra.
