Book sales

It's a bad day for my bank balance when Exclusive Books has their twice-yearly book sale. I always get more books than I can possibly read, and my bookshelf is filled with unread tomes from many sales ago, but the compulsion remains. This time around, I managed to limit myself to four books, including the second book by the brilliant Marina Lewycka . all of which I know I will read in short order. But the sale's still on for a while, and it's guaranteed that I'll pop in and pick up some more papery flotsam.

I've discovered that I get a weird compulsion at book sales. If I see a book that I know and love (and already own) at a discounted price, I feel the silly urge to buy it anyway (Night Watch for R32, what a bargain!). I have no idea why. And it's not that I want to buy for someone else, or because my copy's damaged. It seems that it's purely the drive to (re)own something amazing, maybe to recapture the magic of discovering the book in the first place - and extra points if it has a better cover than my copy.