Cut 'em up!

One of my favorite things to do is browse in a bookstore. The rows of shiny book jackets that hold such promise between their covers, and the stacks of magazines guaranteeing that if I buy them, I'll learn 50 ways to look more sexy and be able to drop 2 dress sizes in 10 days without doing any exercise. If only.

Until recently, I was a Barnes & Noble member. That meant I "saved" 10 percent on everything in the store. Of course, I had to pay $25 a year to be able to do that -- do the math and that means spending at least $250 a year to break even. But, of course, it was easy to focus less on the one-time, $25 fee than on the 10 percent discount I received each time the register rang cha-ching. Every time I went into the store, especially on my lunch hour, I would get that great rush of adrenaline every American consumer knows -- the satisfaction of having gotten a deal.

Only, since I've cut up my card after it expired, I find myself going into the bookstore less, and to the library (which has no such member fee) more. I'm spending less on impulse purchases -- which feel great in the store, but less great when I come home to a bookshelf stuffed with books that I just had to buy but never actually got around to reading.

I'll never lose my love for books. But having cut that card up, I'm not as easily tempted to spend money on new books, and am looking forward to reading some of the ones I already own. Barnes & Noble can have their 10 percent -- I'll keep the other 90.