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.

This week went by so fast! I didn’t have too many book-buying opportunities this week – some might say that’s a good thing. Here’s what my rummaging about at book sales scored me this week:

• The Sea by John Banville
• Les Enfants Terribles by Jean Cocteau
• The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy
• Faces in the Water by Janet Frame
• Living in the Maniototo by Janet Frame
• Naming the World: And Other Exercises for the Creative Writer compiled by Bret Anthony Johnston
• February House: What Happened When W.H. Auden, Benjamin Britten, Paul & Jane Bowles, Carson McCullers and Gypsy Rose Lee Moved in Together by Sherrill Tippins

I was hugely, ridiculously pleased to find February House on sale for a couple of dollars, mainly due to my rampant obsession and admiration for Carson McCullers. A signed copy of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was sold on ebay for US$500 this week, I’d been following it out of interest for a while now. It was originally listed at a couple of thousand but didn’t sell. The seller relisted it as a normal auction but with a reserve price. People bid on it, but it didn’t reach the reserve so the seller relisted it with the Buy It Now price of US$500 and it was snapped up almost instantly. Alas, not to me!

Reading: I have spent a lot of time reading short stories this week. Mainly short stories on the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die List – Edgar Allen Poe, Nikolai Gogol and my favourite of the lot, Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The Yellow Wallpaper is suitably creepy and frightening, amazing that a story of just over 6000 words can explore so many themes so richly. I’m still reading the Flannery O’Connor short stories, but as I’ve said before, I am in no hurry to finish them all quickly. I read “Greenleaf” on the bus this week, and it was horrifying as I slowly realized where it was going. I started reading John Steinbeck’s The Winter of Our Discontent today, enjoying it so far, but more on that later. Next week I’ll also be starting Jane Austen’s Lady Susan as part of the Austenprose group read.