It seems a fitting end to Carson McCullers Week 2010 that this week’s loot includes a McCullers book. I’ve discovered a British publisher that re-released her novels with the release of the Mortgaged Heart in the early 1970s, and they all have classic typographical hardcovers. And so, in typical obsessive mode, I’m working on collecting myself a complete set, starting with The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, with Clock Without Hands [review] making its way to me from France, and pining for the rest of them.
I even had the first pick of a huge box full of outdated trade proofs at work and only came home with E.L. Doctorow’s Homer and Langley. I think my attitude to book buying/hoarding has shifted, I’m just not sure when/why/how this shift occurred. Working in the bookstore hasn’t weakened my resolve, the only books I’ve bought there so far have been as presents for others. Although I do have my eye and heart eagerly set on a delicious looking Penguin reference box set.
Simon Caterson’s Hoax Nation: Australian Fakes and Frauds, from Plato to Norma Khouri is a review copy kindly sent from Arcade Publications, and I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into it. They also sent me their Melbourne by the Book pamphlet of “Literary Hot Spots, Bookstores, Festivals and More” which is going to give me a lot of new bookish places to explore around town, giving me approximately 451283 more reasons to love Melbourne.
In addition to these new reads, I’ve also been borrowing from the library a lot. And I really mean a lot. I’m too embarrassed to post a photo of exactly what I have borrowed over the past week or so because it displays the sheer audacity of my ambitious approach to reading. I’ve got some young adult fiction, a lot of books by authors from the Gala Night last week, and some books I’ve just haven’t yet gotten around to reading or have found impossible to find elsewhere. It’s almost daunting, it would be impossible for anyone to read the stupid amounts of books I have out on loan, but goddamnit if I’m not going to try.
