I’ll admit it is very possible I went a little overboard this week, but this is what happens when your sister tells you about a street near her house with a multitude of good book shops with strapping young bookstore lads manning the counters. Resistance is futile.

• The Crystal World by J.G. Ballard
  

  Book Loot: Week Ending November 22nd, 2009

• The Drought by J.G. Ballard
• Rushing to Paradise by J.G. Ballard
• Virgin: The Untouched History by Hanne Blank
• Underworld by Don DeLillo
• The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
• Carnal Knowledge: A Navel Gazer’s Dictionary of Anatomy, Etymology, and Trivia by Charles Hodgson
• A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes
• Ironweed by William Kennedy
• The Sickness Unto Death by Søren Kierkegaard
• Days of Reading by Marcel Proust
• The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
• Julian / Williwaw / The Judgement of Paris / Messiah / The City and the Pillar by Gore Vidal

I went into the secondhand bookstore, completely expecting to hand over hard-earned cash in exchange for novels, the guy who works there – who usually gives me a significant discount anyway – gave them to me as a gift? I mean, that was a really wonderful thing for a rainy Sunday morning, but it doesn’t excuse the ridiculousness of this week’s haul.

There’s always this fabulous list of Reasons for Buying Books to try and ease the guilt.