Bring me your written word!

I did a terrible thing today. I bought more books.

This is how it works: Chapters is located in a mega-lot that also includes Staples, Future Shop, and Wal-Mart, any of which I may need to visit a couple of times a month to purchase stuff. However, when my body comes in proximity to Chapters, my addiction centre sends signals to my legs to move in that general direction. Once in Chapters, I am utterly at the mercy of how the sales staff has laid out their enticing displays.

The books on the left are from a previous expedition--actually, the two Umberto Eco books and Sundiver (the book I'm reading right now) came from Chapters Online. I love their shipping. The book with the spine faced away from the camera is Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen. I forgot to turn it the proper way before I snapped this photo. Stephen Baker was interviewed in a recent episode of Spark, so I decided to purchase his book. Similarly, I bought The Stillborn God today because Mark Lilla was on Ideas.

The books on the right are from today's expedition. My dad generously orders Chapters gift cards with his Air Miles (best use of Air Miles ever!). Thanks to him, my iRewards discount, my coupon, and some in-store discounts, I only spent $15.81 of my own money today. Thanks, dad! In addition to The Stillborn God, I couldn't resist an anthology of over sixty short stories by Canadian authors. Another Salman Rushdie book caught my eye. The Assassin's Song is more Indian fiction, which I'm finding I enjoy more and more. And of course, I couldn't buy books without getting Neil Gaiman's latest book, The Graveyard Book! Lastly, I purchased Watchmen to lend to people in case they were interested in reading the graphic novel before seeing the movie that's coming out next year.

Am I addicted? Yes. Thanks to discounts and gift cards, it's mitigated to the point where my addiction is not a problem--for now.((Sort of like in House, where House admits he's addicted to vicodin but doesn't have a problem.)) Hopefully, as I get older, I will adopt a less expensive habit, like sneaking into photos of local sports teams, or compulsively stealing the 32nd page of every phone book in the city.

In fact, if you've read this and are bored, why don't you leave a comment with an idea of some truly unusual addictions? Stretch that imagination a bit!