By way of introduction let me tell you that today I am an editor and proofreader moonlighting as a writer and a bookseller. I am also, on other days, a writer moonlighting as an editor, proofreader and bookseller. I am never a bookseller moonlighting as anything, although I also volunteer at the zoo as a tour guide.
Actually, scrap that. Let me instead introduce myself as a book lover, a bibliophile, a lover of language. I am this every day, although today, for the first time, I had my doubts. I wondered whether I truly loved books or whether I was just hiding behind something. And that was how I knew I was a true bibliophile, because we are always poking holes in things, searching for enlightenment, and never content.
It bothers me that people do not know these things about me. That someone can walk up to the counter in the bookshop and tell me emphatically that I should read the Da Vinci Code when I know I am not that reader, one that would enjoy that book. And that, when I tell someone I am writing a novel, they imagine a certain kind of novel, which I would never write. Even my friends often do not know these things about me, but I hope they have an inkling.
So now, in conclusion, let me tell you that I am moonlighting on my life, but that I have no other way to be.
