Book Loot: Week Ending May 2nd, 2010

A warning to all, especially those on self-imposed book buying bans, this post features an obscene amount of books. First, some ebay packages arrived. Then I found out one of my favourite secondhand bookstores in the city was going out of business and selling all their books for $1. Yes, $1. I set myself a modest limit of $20 and let loose, coming out with only (cough, only? My shoulder and hands disagree) 19 books. The day after the sale ended, my sister happened to be wandering by and they were chucking books into a dumpster; she scored some really good stuff too.

• Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
• Borstal Boy by Brendan Behan
• The Lonely Hunter: A Biography of Carson McCullers by Virginia Spencer Carr
• The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
• The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Diamond as Big as the Ritz and Other Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Liana by Martha Gellhorn
• Katherine Anne Porter: A Life by Joan Givner
• The Ghostly Lover by Elizabeth Hardwick
• The Simple Truth by Elizabeth Hardwick
• Pentimento by Lillian Hellman
• Scoundrel Time by Lillian Hellman
• An Unfinished Woman by Lillian Hellman
• Conversations with Katherine Anne Porter: Refugee from Indian Creek by Enrique Hank Lopez
• Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
• The Collected Essays and Occasional Writings by Katherine Anne Porter
• In Pursuit of Hygiene by Helen Razer
• Beautiful Exile: The Life of Martha Gellhorn by Carl Rollyson
• Lillian Hellman: Her Legend and Her Legacy by Carl Rollyson
• With Fondest Regards by Françoise Sagan
• Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel

And then, yes, that’s just my loot from during the week, there was Clunes. I came well under budget, spending much less than I thought I would. It was a great day, lovely surrounds and buildings, a good vibe, a few friendly dogs and lots of books.  Here’s my haul:

• The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
• God’s Little Acre by Erskine Caldwell [review]
• Death on the Installment Plan by Louis-Ferdinand Céline
• Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland
• The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
• The Thief’s Journal by Jean Genet
• Ringolevio: A Life Played for Keeps by Emmett Grogan
• Antic Hay by Aldous Huxley
• From Here to Eternity by James Jones
• Lonesome Traveler by Jack Kerouac
• The Penguin Book of New American Voices edited by Jay McInerney
• The Group by Mary McCarthy
• Under the Net by Iris Murdoch
• A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul
• A House for Mr Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
• The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark
• The Driver’s Seat by Muriel Spark
• Not to Disturb by Muriel Spark
• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
• The Public Image by Muriel Spark
• The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead
• Bitter Fame: A Life of Sylvia Plath by Anne Stevenson
• The Life and Death of Yukio Mishima by Henry Scott Stokes
• The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder

And, a few interesting articles from the week:

• Literary Characters and Their Modern-Day Tabloid Counterparts by Bailey Kennedy
• Faking Nice in the Blogosphere: Women and Book Reviews by Sarah McCarry (A must read, in my opinion.)
• Mae at Mad Bibliophile has written up a summary of her day at Clunes, including a photograph of the pony in a local front yard. (!)
• Does Twitter Sell Books? Our Quasi-Scientific Study by Paul Young

Tags: A Bend in the River, A House for Mr Biswas, Aldous Huxley, An Unfinished Woman, Anne Stevenson, Antic Hay, April 2010, Beautiful Exile: The Life of Martha Gellhorn, Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women, Bitter Fame: A Life of Sylvia Plath, Book Loot, Borstal Boy, Brendan Behan, Carl Rollyson, Christina Stead, Clunes, Conversations with Katherine Anne Porter: Refugee from Indian Creek, Death on the Installment Plan, Douglas Coupland, Elizabeth Hardwick, Elizabeth Wurtzel, Emmett Grogan, Enrique Hank Lopez, Erskine Caldwell, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Françoise Sagan, From Here to Eternity, Girlfriend in a Coma, God's Little Acre, Grace Metalious, Helen Razer, Henry Scott Stokes, In Pursuit of Hygiene, Iris Murdoch, Jack Kerouac, James Jones, Jay McInerney, Jean Genet, Joan Givner, Jonathan Franzen, Katherine Anne Porter, Katherine Anne Porter: A Life, Liana, Lillian Hellman, Lillian Hellman: Her Legend and Her Legacy, Lonesome Traveler, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Martha Gellhorn, Mary McCarthy, May 2010, Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, Muriel Spark, Not to Disturb, Paul Bowles, Pentimento, Peyton Place, Ringolevio: A Life Played for Keeps, Sandra Cisneros, Scoundrel Time, Simone de Beauvoir, The Ballad of Peckham Rye, The Beautiful and the Damned, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, The Collected Essays and Occasional Writings, The Corrections, The Diamond as Big as the Ritz and Other Stories, The Driver's Seat, The Ghostly Lover, The Group, The House on Mango Street, The Life and Death of Yukio Mishima, The Lonely Hunter A Biography of Carson McCullers, The Man Who Loved Children, The Penguin Book of New American Voices, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Public Image, The Sheltering Sky, The Simple Truth, The Thief's Journal, Thornton Wilder, Under the Net, V.S. Naipaul, Virginia Spencer Carr, With Fondest Regards