I am scary when I go on a book-buying binge. It’s something that affects me seasonally; looking back on the past three or four years, it’s something that I tend to do twice a year: first, shortly into the new year, and then in the summer, around my birthday.

My explanation for the New Year buying binge is that there’s usually one book I have on my "gifts you should buy me" list that I don’t get. How this turns into a binge is easy enough. Amazon has really tuned into the psyche of the bookworm so all the book-related buttons I sport have been easily and effortlessly targeted on its site.

In other words, I’m a sucker for books, and I’m always ready and willing to place yet another order. (My credit card would beg to defer.)

My explanation for the annual summer book-buying spree is a little different, though. I embark on this one intentionally. Work-wise, summer is my slowest time. By the end of July I have usually finished reading the books I’ve bought in the two previous sprees (the ones I can manage to find around the house, anyway), so I’m ready for more.

By then, I’ve gone to the library and paid up my fines, so the library’s resources are fully available to me, too. (Ward insists that I am a great civic citizen because I keep the library going financially, but that’s another post.) Usually, after one or two trips to the library, I’ve more or less exhausted the "on the shelves" books that catch my eye.

Here’s where I get scary. When I start my book-buying spree, I will generally open up four tabs in Firefox: Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Chapters and my local library’s website. In front of me is my writer’s notebook, throughout whose pages I have scores of book titles jotted down.

I approach it all very methodically. The entire process can take me a couple of days.

I cruise to Amazon.com and check out each book in my notebook. I then run the title through my library’s online catalogue. If a book’s available, great; I either request it, or place a hold on it if it’s at another branch. If nothing comes up, I check Amazon.ca and Chapters. I will then place the book in the shopping cart of site that offers the best price AND has the title in-stock. And if the title isn’t available at either Chapters or Amazon.ca, and I really really want the book (the "really really want the book" part happens a frightening 99% of the time) I will add the book to my cart at Amazon.com.

That’s not the scary part, though. As I check out each title from my notebook, I will also check out interesting looking books that I find in the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" section, opening each one in a separate tab. When I have two levels of tabs running in Firefox, I stop opening more tabs and start checking out the tabs I’ve opened up.

At the end of the day, I will open up each shopping cart, wince, go through each list to see if I really really want each book in the cart (see note re: a frightening 99% of the time), reluctantly move a very small proportion of the books to my wish list or save for later list, then, taking a deep breath and apologizing to my credit card and bank account, I submit my orders.

About two to three days later, the boxes start arriving. I am plagued with a curious mixture of extreme guilt and giddy anticipation.

Usually during my summer book-buying binge, by the time I get all the new books stacked onto the dining room table, I will be edging back into my busy season work-wise. As a result, many of those books stay unread for way too long, although eventually they all do get read.

This long explanation is merely an introduction to a new category here, "To Be Read". I figured, it’s about time.