What happens to Jamison as she is walking through a garden campus in chapter 2?

While walking through a garden on the UCLA campus, she is reminded of Alfred Lord Tennyson's Idylls of the King and is seized with a desire to have the book. She rushes off to the bookstore and buys, not only Tennyson, but about a dozen books she thinks relates to the poem. Slowly, as her mind floats back to earth, Jamison realizes she can't afford that kind of spending spree.