Step One: Admit You Have a Problem

My name is Jerseyaikidogirl and I am a book addict.

I can't help it.

I picked up "Poochie Flower Power" When I was 2 and a half, taught myself to read it and kind of never stopped aftre that.

I blame my parents. They are such regulars at their neighborhood Barnes and Noble that, if it is slow, the girl at the counter will go into the Starbuck's and buy my father's coffee and bring it to him when she sees him come in.

I am not lying.

When I was about 12, I went through a phase where I stopped reading because I "couldn't find anything I liked." My parents must have dragged me through a bookstore at least once a week until I found something I would read. It wasn't that big a crisis. I was kind of too young for "adult" books and too mature for books written for middle schoolers. And I had a lousy literature teacher who had turned me off for awhile. It was not as dangerous a situation as my parents feared it would be.

I can easily go into any bookstore on any day and drop $20-$80.

I once spent far more money than I care to admit to on shipping so that I could get books by a favorite author whose work I could only find on Amazon UK.

My nightstand regularly holds 3-10 books, all of which I am "in the middle of."

When a friend dared to suggest that I should decrease my book collection (as he was helping me move into a new apartment), I cried out that I could never throw away an old friend.

I'm thinking of starting a 12-step group for people like me, but I'm pretty sure it would degenerate into a book club within a month.