Temptation

"I can resist anything but temptation."
~Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan


So, the other day I just happened to end up in one of my very favorite stores ever. Barnes & Noble. (Borders and other bookstores: you are not far behind, but where I live B&N has the bigger store and better selection so victory to Barnes & Noble on this one. Plus, it smells like coffee in there. Mmmm...coffee.) Yeah, that's right. Favorite. Store. Ever. It has been since I was a child. See, I told you I was a bibliophile.

Anyway, so I was in Barnes & Noble (p.s. Shopping on a Saturday in December by yourself is a very, very bad idea. Be sure to go with a friend or you may lose your mind.) and wandering around, looking for gift ideas, checking new titles, taking pleasure in being surrounded by so many books, you know, that good stuff. Then I saw it. It was so pretty, just sitting there all tempting and such. The collected and illustrated works of Oscar Wilde. All his stuff, in one book, there in front of me. Oscar Wilde: The Complete Works (Collector's Library Editions Series). So pretty. I want it.

And next to it and only slightly less tempting (due only to the fact that I own six of her novels separately already) was a bound collection of Jane Austen's novels. Jane Austen: Seven Novels (Leatherbound). It was an exercise in self-control to be sure. (A bookstore is one of the only places where I cannot be trusted with my money). I was not there to buy books for myself though, and I am proud (and slightly dissapointed) to say that I did not purchase the two volumes. I just stood there and stared at them for a while.

I want them both.

We'll see what happens.