Someone had a bit of an Amazon meme that involved reporting what your first Amazon purchases were.

I first started using Amazon in college in 2001. My first purchase (I love that Amazon has this recorded - January 22, 2001) was "The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat" by Sacks. I ordered that for my cognitive psychology class. It was my last semester and one of the assignments was to read a book and keep a journal. Needless to say, my motivation in purchasing that particular book was that it was the shortest of all of them on the list. Interestingly, I got a terrible grade on the journal, but loved the book and have since used excerpts in a lot of my own teaching.

About a month later in February, I purchased "The Velvet Glove" by Mary Jackman. I purchased this after talking with my the woman who became my graduate advisor. She thought I'd really like the book, so I ordered it. I'm a little embarrassed to say that the book is still sitting on my bookshelf, never read.

In March there is another order, that Amazon doesn't appear to have the record for other than it was $27. I wonder what it was...

In May, after graduating, I ordered two Camus books ("The Fall" and "Caligula and Three Other Plays"). I took existential philosophy earlier in college and we were supposed to read Camus' "The Stranger," but never had class time. It sat on my bookshelf for a couple of years, and I read it after graduation. Loved it! Existential philosophy suddenly made sense to me, so I ordered more Camus. I read the books over the summer while on my lunch break from my crappy temp job at an insurance company.

How many orders have a placed on Amazon by year?

• 2001 - 7


• 2002 - 7


• 2003 - 10


• 2004 - 4


• 2005 - 3


• 2006 - 7


• 2007 - 6


• 2008 - 17


• 2009 - 23


• 2010 - 7