Confessions of a Book Binger

I’m currently in the throes of a book binge. The topic of my obsession this time around, ironically enough, is consumer psychology. Past book binge themes include Zen poetry, hypnosis, Marshall McLuhan and Tibetan Buddhist mind training.

I could go on and on.

So far in this binge I’ve only purchased two books: To Buy or Not to Buy: Why We Overshop and How to Stop and The Culture Code . There are eight other books in my crosshairs. I haven’t pulled the trigger and bought them yet, partly because I’m trying to correct my impulsive behaviour and partly due to the crushing reality that I simply can’t afford them.

The first book To Buy or Not to Buy I purchased on the Kindle and ravenously devoured it in one sitting. The book is written by April Lane Benson, a psychologist who specializes in the treatment of compulsive buying disorder. The book is an eye-opener and helped me understand why I buy bad domain names .

This book should have been enough, at least for a while. It was a full course meal. But rather than allowing myself to feel satiated I bought The Culture Code last night and read that too.†

Well, most of it. As the book went into examples, I was looking at the menu again, jonesing for the next title. I did a few more searches for books and found another one I can’t afford. Even if I could afford it, would I read it? Half the books I buy in a book binge go unread. Some are even unopened. This often happens with used books I order from third party dealers. By the time I get the book via snail mail, my interest in that subject has burned out like a car fire and I’m on to my next obsession.

The problem got so bad that I’d rather skim the scanned text on Google Books instead of buying the physical copy.

Digital books aren’t as much of an issue, although there too I’ve been known to bite off more than I can chew. I use Goodreads to shelf a candidate on my ‘Want to Read’ list in the unlikely case I’ll still want the book later. It’s a rare case when Goodreads saves me money; usually it is enticing me with tasty new titles and priming me for my next binge.

And there will be a next binge. Plenty of them, I hope. When I book binge there’s often a satisfying click in my mind as mental maps connect to create a more wholistic understanding. I read faster and retain more of what I read too. It’s how I finished 100 books last year and plan to do so again this year .‡

The main downside to book binging is the cost: some books, even digital ones, are prohibitively expensive. Full disclosure: I once bought an e-book for a hundred dollars. It was a pure impulse buy. The extravagance of such a purchase and the fact I abandoned it after only a few pages is a mistake I will never repeat.

End of story.



† The Culture Code is an instructive book. It reminds me of Carl Jung’s Association Method and my “redesign” of it called Critical Stimulus .

‡ We'll get to signalling in an upcoming post ;)