Book-Buying Binge

It happens to me, on a fairly regular basis. I go on these book buying binges, and unlike other types of binges, afterwards it feels lovely. I had ample justification for this one, as a group of us on Twitter came up with a wonderful event: “No BEA? Books Anyway!”, hosted at Devourer of Books. There’s still time to play, by the way. The event is open all weekend.

I ended up going to four five different places. And I have another big excuse for this particular binge: we are going to be vacationing in the Maritimes for two weeks in July, so stocking up on reading material for the 19 hour drive there and back, not to mention the two weeks on the beach, is actually an essential thing. No, really. It is.

Basically, I bought for myself, for my two teens, my six-year-old, and my husband, who loves to cook.

So here we go!

First stop: Online shopping at Chapters, Canada’s big bricks ‘n’ clicks bookstore. (Ironically, the pics and links are from/to Amazon.com – my apologies to my fellow Canadian readers, but it’s much easier to do it this way. But Chapters definitely carries all of these books, too.) If you hover your mouse over a cover, you should be able to see a small box with the title.

The Harry Turtledove books are for my older son, who loves reading alternative history books. The two Mad Lib books are for my daughter; her best friend is coming with us (we did a similar trip last year) and their idea of fun is to play Mad Libs using my older son’s name in various places, which bugs him no end (that being the point, I gather, of the whole thing).

I had borrowed both The Language of Bees and Now and Then from the library, but couldn’t finish them in time (I want to read The Language of Bees slowly so I can savor it);  I couldn’t renew either of them because they’re on other people’s holds list, so I thought it would be a good idea to get my own copies.

Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life is a special treat just for my vacation: I read about it earlier this week on this wonderful post about memoirs at Books and Movies, and just knew it would be perfect for me.

The cookbook is for my husband; he’s fallen in love with Italian food, so it looked like a good fit. And the rest of them I discovered by browsing the bargain outlet section.

Next up: Winners. Winners is actually more of a clothing store; they sell brand name clothes, shoes and handbags at discounted prices. I normally leave that store with lots of clothes and shoes – very definitely shoes. And handbags. I have a thing for handbags, too. But they also have a small toy section, and an aisle of discount books. To keep me from wandering the rest of the store, I brought my six-year-old with me; we picked up mostly toys, but I also picked up this book (I almost forgot this one!)

Then I went to Homesense, another favorite store of mine. Homesense carries lots of lovely things for the home; it’s affiliated with Winners, and the merchandise is all at discounted prices. They have a larger discount books area, so I managed to pick up the following books:

All of these books were impulse buys; they were also bargain-priced, which always adds to the good feeling of a binge.

Of course, I can never resist the book aisle at Costco, which for me is located too conveniently close to Chapters:

I also bought Specials, but the image won’t show up for some reason – I’ve been meaning to read the Uglies series for a while now, and Costco had the four titles in paperback for a great price. I’ve read Book one of the Immortal Instruments series, so thought it would be nice to pick up books two and three. I read Literacy and Longing in L.A. last year and just loved it, so A Version of the Truth was a must-buy. The Jennifer Weiner book was an impulse buy; Weiner always makes me laugh, so it looked like a great vacation read.

Last stop: Chapters – the physical store. I could browse the aisles at Chapters for ages, but unfortunately, I had my six-year-old with me again, as well as my daughter and her friend, an exchange student from Japan. So I was more or less in “grab what I can” mode – but as it turns out, even when under constraints, I can grab quite a few!

Luckily for me, this weekend turned out to be a special weekend for iRewards card holders at Chapters (I’ve been an iRewards card holder ever since the program began, and when they switched over to their current program terms, they actually gave me a lifetime membership, so I never have to pay to renew. Honestly. That’s how much I buy from them!)

As you can see, I wandered down the “Writing & Publishing” aisle. I’ll be starting a “Books for Writers” review feature here (my flimsy excuse for picking up these writing books). And I blame my purchase of How I Got Published: Famous Authors Tell You in Their Own Words on Louise Penny; as I flipped through the book, I saw that she had contributed her story. How could I resist?

The anime books are for my daughter, who’s not much of a reader; she’s mainly interested in filmmaking and anime. The story books are for my younger son, and yes, he has a wide range of interests. He likes My Little Pony as much as he enjoys Diego, Handy Manny and Thomas the Tank Engine.

So this is my contribution to No BEA? Books Anyway! I think I did pretty well, although now all I need is more time to read!

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Related posts:

1. Another Book-Buying Binge! (Or, Why I Shouldn’t Go To Costco Anymore)
2. Found Treasures From My Book Stash

Tagged as: book buying binges, book news, to be read