Everybody has their sickness

The title of this post is something I use to remind myself that everyone that I have ever met has some quirk that will consume time and/or money doing objectively useless things... and to remind myself not to judge them too harshly, since my primary sickness is games. What I sometimes forget, however, is that being possessed of one sickness in no way inoculates you from other sicknesses...

Last month, I wrote about the Negima! anime series, and that I'd try out the manga source material... boy, talk about your "gateway drug" experience. Here's a brief rundown of my time with Negima! so far:

• Before July: Start watching the series on Netflix. Price: $0 (beyond what I was already spending on Netflix)
• Early July: Oh, Netflix doesn't have disc 3... but Amazon has the whole 6-disc series available for cheap! Price: about $15
• Mid-Late July: That was pretty good, but I want more. Oh hey, Amazon has used copies of the first five volumes of the manga from various vendors for under a buck (plus a few dollars shipping each... still a lot cheaper than new, though). Price: $20-$25
• Early August: Hm... consumed those volumes in one night. Most of that batch of manga matched the anime, in broad strokes, but had better story development... and it just started to deviate from the anime in ways I like. It was a real pain waiting for shipments from all those vendors, though... think I'll try getting used copies of the next five volumes from "fulfillment by Amazon" sellers. Price: about $35
• Mid August: Showed some restraint, and managed to make those volumes last all weekend long. Time for five more volumes... but it looks like the used prices aren't much off the new prices for these. I guess I'll pony up for new copies from Amazon this time. Price: about $50
• Today: I can't believe I stayed up until midnight on a work night to finish those books... and they left me with a cliffhanger ending! I may as well face it, this series has me hooked, and I'm so very weak... luckily, I converted some credit card rewards points into an Amazon gift card, so this won't hurt too much. Amazon, send me the last 12 volumes that are out in print so far... I can take it! Price: about $110

So yeah, in a week or two, I'll get my last shipment of books, likely will consume them over the course of 2-3 days tops, then likely will wait with bated breath for volume 28 when it drops in late October... oh, that will be some unpleasant withdrawal symptoms time, I'm thinking. Any of you Spokane friends care to jump on board the plague cart? I'll gladly lend you DVDs or early manga volumes... :)