Last night as I was leaving my favorite used bookstore five books "richer" I was feeling a tad bit guilty. Of course I rationalize that five books for a mere $20.00 (the sixth in the pile was a book I just mooched so it was free) is hardly something to feel terribly guilty about. My guilt stems more from the knowledge that I already have more than I can read and here I am adding more to the piles. However, after watching 20/20 last night I am feeling guilty no longer. The show was on "promises". That would be promises that companies make to consumers and how they break those promises. Apparently the hot status item for women everywhere these days is handbags (this was one story amongst several in last night's show). They are the "feel good item that women lust after". Well, some women anyway. I thought I was being exorbitant owning a Fossil handbag (and let me tell you--Not their priciest model--and I have definitely gotten my money's worth from it as I seriously need to replace it--but I am digressing). One woman they interviewed had more handbags than I could possibly imagine--they were everywhere in her home. And I had no idea that handbags could possibly cost as much as they do....$16,000? I so do not feel bad now at buying the books I do. Five books for twenty bucks is nothing compared to a room chock full of pricey handbags (as for why they were talking about handbags on this show...in case you were wondering...if you are a handbag luster don't bother getting cheap ones on the internet as they are likely fake rip-offs).
Now are you curious about what I bought? No, no handbags. But I now have two more books by Colette (yes, I have fallen in love with her work, but more about that later...) My Mother's House and Sido (two novels in one about Colette's childhood, family and mother) as well as The Ripening Seed (set in Brittany..."the seacoast pervades every page"). I also came across a few books by Marguerite Duras and chose Emily L. (yes, I am still in the mood for French books--this a "meditation on love and death, desire and dissolution"). I found two more Viragos: Edith Wharton's The Children and Full House by M.J. Farrell/Molly Keane. I also came home to a book that I mooched, The Sweetest Thing by Fiona Shaw (this was compared to the works of Sarah Waters and Tracy Chevalier, the Observer called it "historical, literary fiction at its very best"). And now, my niece has informed me that I have written altogether too much about books (what she doesn't know, eh!), and that she would like to play games at the Disney website. So I am being booted off the computer. I guess I will go read books rather than talk about them now, as I can't take a seven-year old hovering over my shoulder reading what I type anymore tonight!