Librarian by Day. Vampire Book Whore by Night.

I love to read.  I've always been an avid reader.  When I was a kid, my family lived around the corner from our public library.  I could cut through the neighbor's yard and be at the library in less than 5 minutes, never crossing the road.  After my parents' divorce, my mother even worked part-time there.  (Yet another way I'm following in my mother's footsteps, but I digress.)  I friggin' LOVED the library.  I spent hours upon hours at storytime, graduating to my own library card as soon as I was eligible, then perusing the stacks for copies of Nancy Drew.

I was and am a bookworm.

Not all librarians, however, are bookworms.  Despite myths to the contrary, not all of us are this way.  I'm happy to say that myself and my co-workers are the epitome of the myth.  If one of us can't suggest a book of a certain genre, we can point to another librarian who can.  If we haven't read it, we've cataloged, shelved, cleaned or checked it in/out.  (Yes, cleaned.  We clean every book that's checked in with alcohol.  We don't want or need your germs.  Or your kids' germs.  Or whatever that goop is that you set your library book on that's now crusted onto the cover.  We. Don't. Want. It.)

Anyway.

Right now, I'm reading Quiet Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarian.  Scott Douglas is witty and honest (sometimes quite brutally).  I'm enjoying the book, so much so that my ass is posting this at 1am, a time when I'm usually found snoozing away in bed.  (People who tell me that they read in bed so they can go to sleep confuse me.  If I'm reading a good book, I have a hard time putting the damn thing down to get my beauty sleep.  And I NEED my beauty sleep.)

I don't want to give you the wrong idea.  I don't just read books about my profession, nor do I read only non-fiction.  Far from it.  As much as I loathe the bodice rippers that come across the circulation desk, I'm a vampire lit freak.  FREAK, I tell you.  And it's all Anne Rice's fault.

Like I said earlier, the first chapter books I really remember reading in the library were Nancy Drew cases.  (Before this, I was addicted to anything having to do with Peanuts.  Lucy VanPelt was one of my first heroines.)  Somewhere along the way, I read Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (my second all-time favorite children's book, closely following C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.)  Then, my dad hooked me on Science Fiction, primarily Isaac Asimov and Alan Dean Foster.

Then came Interview with the Vampire.  Sweet Jesus, I was hooked.  I read every one of the vampire chronicles and then the Mayfair Witches.  And forget Lestat.  I wanted Louis.  All that brooding!  (Take that Edward.  Louis broods WAY better than you do and he doesn't do that sparkling shit.  And yes, I've read the Twilight series and I enjoyed them.  I even saw the first two movies.  But after seeing the second (BAD) I couldn't bring myself to watch the third.  Not yet, anyway.)  While there are Buffy books, I'm a slave to Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer series - Spike! (And let's not forget Rupert Giles, THE sexiest librarian to ever grace the small screen).

I read Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series (which I enjoy more than HBO's True Blood, thankyouverymuch.  In fact, I like Harris's Aurora Teagarden series better - about a librarian who solves crimes, yay!)  My current favorite is Mary Janice Davidson's Queen Betsy series for all of its wit, cursing (lots of it, almost as much as me) and fast-paced antics.  Oh, and she has a shoe fetish, as do I.  Sweet.  I'm also (somewhat ashamedly) reading the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead.

Oh. My. Gods.  I'm a vampire book whore.

But I'll still sneer inwardly when you check out that Debbie Macomber book.