A confession: Gluttony and books

How many compulsive book-buyers are on this forum? I'm certain I'm not the only one. I'm feeling
particularly guilty right now because even though this is a very tight budget week, I spent more
than I should have (I splurged on a hardcover) at Barnes & Noble. I apologized to my husband and
promised to buy only the bare necessities, grocery-wise, until he gets paid on Monday. Well, I was
at Target just about an hour ago, and I found a book I'd been looking for for months but had not
tracked down: A Wolf at the Table, by Augusten Burroughs. It was the last copy!

So, I succumbed to the temptation and purchased it. For awhile, I was seriously tempted to just
toss the receipt and hide the book from my husband. (I sound like an alcoholic or something!)

I suppose I shouldn't make light of this, because it was a greedy/gluttonous choice.

I wanted to share that on here, though, because there are so many avid readers.

I go on there looking for one book and end up buying seven. Totally addictive.

BTW, my wife just read Twilight. We've come up with some alternate titles for it:

Transylvania 90210

My So-Called Unlife

And my fave, The 140-Year Old Virgin

That's exactly the problem I have; I plan to buy one book and end up with half a dozen. I've
never visited half.com, but the one-click purchase function on Amazon has led to many a large
purchase.

I like your and your wife's alternate title suggestions for Twilight <laugh>. I've been tempted
to read one of those books or one of the Harry Potter ones just to see what the fuss is about.

I have been a compulsive book buyer; It's better now because we have been trying to really watch expenses, but I went into B&N a while back and bought four books when intending to buy one. Two were for my son, but still....

knowing that it's deeply wrong on so many levels but you're going to read it anyway. What I love is how, in this day in age, it's copletely subversive of the status quo in so many ways. So you've got 18 year olds getting married, for example, and people who love the books are also beside themselves trying to wrap their heads around how that's ok.

I actually read them compulsively, so I have no defense.

In regard to the other, I'm sitting here thinking of how I hould clean out my bookshelves. What has helped me in this area is that I check everything out of the library first--we have a terrific interlibrary loan system, so I hardly ever am not able to find a book. I only buy it if I know I'm going to reread it. And I frequent the library bookstore for 50 cent paperbacks. I'm not quite sure when books became clutter for me.

and actually enjoyed the story. It is in no way great literature, but enjoyable nonetheless.

I also read all of the Harry Potter books, and was struck by how Christian the story ended up being. Again, none of hte books are going to win a Newbery medal, but it was a good read, anyway. My 11-year-old ate them up. She won't be reading Twilight any time soon.