Tales of a Book Thief
FIrst book I ever stole, knowing stole,planned and decided to keep forever was a paperback copy of Brahm Stoker's Dracula. It was a large print, cheap paper edition. By the time I was eight I figured out that the library paperback weren't in the electronic system. That was very soothing to me because I had an awful time keeping track of due dates. Time is hard to keep track of when you're eight!
I checked out this edition of Dracula, just knowing that because of the large print it was probably meant for children, and I read it in a fascinated huddle on my bed. BY the time I was finished, I couldn't remember how it started, just that it was fascinating, so I began to read it again and again and again.
I came home one day to find my mum loading all the library books in the car. I said, Mum! What are you doing!
And she said something along the lines of, "I'm returning these you ungrateful child. You lazy, lazy child. Get in the car." So we go to the library to return them, and I keep an eye on the library carts while Mum ducks upstairs for some books. as soon as they shift the full cart out of receiving and into the waiting dock, I walk around carefully, ducking in the dewey decimal shelves as if conducting a research paper. When the librarians are all visibly occupied, I dash round the corner labeled "STAFF ONLY" and I grab the copy of Dracula. I switch the slip of paper taped inside with the returned marker and replace it with a slip I snatched from a library book that wasn't due yet. Then I walked right out through the doors without a second thought.
I must have reread that book a dozen times before I put it aside. Then it started to become a ritual. Once a month, I would reread "Dracula." I kept it when the front cover fell off, the back cover, when the preface and the final chapters were loosing pages. I had fallen in love with the little paperback.
When I took Gothic literature in college, I brought my shredded old paperback with me, with duck taped post it notes making a new protective cover. I'd never seen a professor look so pleased before over a book that wasn't theirs.
It's still sitting on my bookshelf, waiting for the next time I pop open it's pages and settle for a good read. Mostly likely, tonight after work.
I checked out this edition of Dracula, just knowing that because of the large print it was probably meant for children, and I read it in a fascinated huddle on my bed. BY the time I was finished, I couldn't remember how it started, just that it was fascinating, so I began to read it again and again and again.
I came home one day to find my mum loading all the library books in the car. I said, Mum! What are you doing!
And she said something along the lines of, "I'm returning these you ungrateful child. You lazy, lazy child. Get in the car." So we go to the library to return them, and I keep an eye on the library carts while Mum ducks upstairs for some books. as soon as they shift the full cart out of receiving and into the waiting dock, I walk around carefully, ducking in the dewey decimal shelves as if conducting a research paper. When the librarians are all visibly occupied, I dash round the corner labeled "STAFF ONLY" and I grab the copy of Dracula. I switch the slip of paper taped inside with the returned marker and replace it with a slip I snatched from a library book that wasn't due yet. Then I walked right out through the doors without a second thought.
I must have reread that book a dozen times before I put it aside. Then it started to become a ritual. Once a month, I would reread "Dracula." I kept it when the front cover fell off, the back cover, when the preface and the final chapters were loosing pages. I had fallen in love with the little paperback.
When I took Gothic literature in college, I brought my shredded old paperback with me, with duck taped post it notes making a new protective cover. I'd never seen a professor look so pleased before over a book that wasn't theirs.
It's still sitting on my bookshelf, waiting for the next time I pop open it's pages and settle for a good read. Mostly likely, tonight after work.