Anna Lembke

Sure.

It always starts out innocent.

And of course, you know, it was, but what happened was it changed the way I felt in the moment and

in a way that resonated so deeply that I wanted to keep recreating that feeling.

And what was that feeling?

It was essentially a feeling of non-being.

While I was reading the Twilight Saga, it just transported me to another time and place such that I completely forgot myself.

And that self-forgetting was clearly something that I needed and wanted.

You know, I read the whole saga.

I think it's like four books.

And then I wanted to recreate that feeling again.

So I read the whole saga again.

Wow.

Pleasurable, but not as pleasurable as the first time around.

But by then I was completely tapped into this whole genre of vampire romance novels.

And so I started to invest larger and larger amounts of time, energy, and creativity into obtaining and reading vampire romance novels.

You know, seemingly innocent to start with, but it became a bit of an obsession.

And when I ran out of vampire romance novels, I moved on to werewolf romance novels, and then there was necromancers and soothsayers and all kinds of paranormal romance novels.

Where were you procuring these books?

So I live right next to a little library, which has a limited collection.