I confess.

I’m a book murderer.

I should be ashamed, but I swear, officer librarian, I have no control.

When I’m finished reading for the night, i dog ear the corner of the page I’m on. Yes, yes, I’ve tried bookmarks, but I lose them, the cats use them for playtoys and it’s just not the same….

I crack the spine with a nice ear-pleasing crrrrreeeeeeeeeak when the book is brand new and won’t lie easily in my hand.

I eat while reading.

I’m every librarian’s worst nightmare.

And yet, the books most used, most tattered, most abused are my favorite. I own 5 copies of Kathleen Woodiwiss’ Shanna. I own two copies of Nora Robert’s Chesapeake Bay series. 4 copies of Jude Deveraux’s a Knight in Shining Armor.

All tattered, all earmarked.

But that’s what *I* do to *my* books. I cried when I loaned out Nora Roberts and she came back with tea stains and teeth marks. And when someone once gave me back a Kristan Higgins book they’d spilled a bloody mary on? Shit hit the fan.

After I became a writer (so to speak) I got worse. I marked pages that might have a good sex scene that I wanted to deconstruct. I marked a good laugh scene, a good fight scene. One Harlequin novel had over 50 bent pages of things I wanted to re-read, to see how it was done.

And yes, I bend over the pages in library books. But as atonement for my sins, I donate a ton of books to the library every year, and always pay my copious fines on time.

So I do have a little bit of a conscience when it comes to murder.

A very little. =)

How about you? Are you a book murderer?

=)

carrie