I managed to go into Barnes & Noble and not break the bank!

I confess, I have a book fetish. They say that the first step to overcoming a problem is admitting that you have the problem. There you have it – I like books. It isn’t a bad thing according to the average by stander…watcher…Reading is good thus books are good. It all seems pretty logical to me.

Here is the problem…in my Amazon cart alone, I have $184.62 worth of books. Yep, that’s the total before shipping & handling. *gasp* I am not sure how it got there. I am in complete denial. I couldn’t have possibly have added that much stuff to the cart. *shrug* I don’t know how it got there. That’s my story and I am sticking to it!

What is in my cart that adds up to $184.62, you ask? Do you really want to know? Yes? Well, let us take a look at the list:

» DHTML Utopia Modern Web Design Using JavaScript & DOM (Stuart Langridge)

» HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS (Rachel Andrew)

» The CSS Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks (Rachel Andrew)

» Shop Smart, Save More: Learn the Grocery Game and Save Hundreds of Dollars a Month (Teri Gault)

» AJAX: A Beginner’s Guide (Osborne Mcgraw Hill, Steven Holzner)

» The Web Designer’s Idea Book: The Ultimate Guide To Themes, Trends & Styles In Website Design (Patrick Mcneil)

» Flexible Web Design: Creating Liquid and Elastic Layouts with CSS (Zoe Mickley Gillenwater)

» Everything You Know about CSS is Wrong! (Rachel Andrew)

I can’t believe I just revealed the contents of my Amazon shopping cart! *blush* You have probably seen a trend in the titles. Mostly web design stuff. Yes, I am a web junkie and I am not afraid to admit it. Yes, I wear a shirt that says <GEEK> on the front and </GEEK> on the back. That would be compliments of my dear, sweet husband. I need one that reads “Please wait” with a loading bar on it. Back to the trend though. I really can’t wait until the Shop Smart, Save More book comes out. Soon. Very soon.

By the way, any and all donations will be accepted. I’ll even be grateful! Feel free to be as generous as you so please.

Now you’re probably wondering what the big deal with Barnes & Noble is since I obviously can’t be trusted at Amazon. Yes, there you have it, I am not allowed to shop at Amazon.com without supervision. Wait, I just uncovered another problem. My husband. He’s as bad as or worse than me. I will give him credit that his cart probably does not contain all books, but now I only gave you the list that is “ready to buy” in my cart…it just happened to be all books. If you get to the “wish list” you’re in for more financial disaster inducing bliss. Since one item by itself is showing as being $249 by itself, I’ll leave the rest of it to your overly active imagination. It is books and non-book items alike.

So the fact that I went into Barnes & Noble with Lance…some supervision…and only spent $13.61 is a VERY GOOD THING! Yes, it is something to celebrate. Get out the brass band. Bring on the chips and salsa! I did NOT buy a single book for myself. I bought a book for Lance. I bought a book for Kyle. I am not going to let this whole fact that he actually read a lengthy book in 2 days lay in waste. I am going to gingerly pick it up and run with it. OK, so maybe I’ll only sneak away with it at first. I went in hoping to find another book like The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. That was the hope. Well, hopes don’t always work out being what ends up as reality. I ended up buying Frindle by Andrew Clements (illustrated by Brian Selznick). I’ve heard some great things about it even though I’ve never read it personally.

So there you have it. I practiced self restraint today. Yes, I looked at the drawing, graphic design, and clip art books. No, I didn’t buy any. Yes, I looked at all the web design and Adobe Photoshop books. No, I didn’t buy any. I looked at the magazine rack, including the photoshop, web design, and scrapbooking magazines. I did not buy a one. Go me!