I first read Go Ask Alice when I eighteen and working evening shifts at WH Smiths. (I say "working" in the loosest possible sense, because most of my time was spent reading and gossiping with my friend Julian.) I immediately fell in love with the book - an anonymous diary of 17-year-old drug user. I was totally captivated by Alice's life, her struggles with addiction, her battle to get her life back on track despite massive obstacles. I believed it. I believed it was real and I recommended it to friends and forced it upon loved ones.

But Go Ask Alice lied to me. Because Go Ask Alice was no more the genuine diary of a drug addict than I am a psychotic green llama. In actual fact, the book was written by one Beatrice Sparks, psychologist and youth counsellor. Sparks also produced a book called Jay's Journal, an account of a youth who committed suicide after becoming involved with the occult. (I'm dying to get my hands on this, if anyone knows where I could get a copy.) Sparks claimed both books were based on real journals belonging to patients of hers. I don't know if this is true or not, but it seems Sparks was essentially a big fat liar.

Really, in retrospect, I'm amazed I ever believed Go Ask Alice was the genuine article. The lengthy, detailed passages purportedly recorded during freak-outs, drug-binges and stays at mental hospitals should have clued me in, really. And compared to genuine books of this nature, like Katie.com or Second Star To The Right, both of which I adore, this journal just doesn't cut it.

But you know what? I don't care. I still love Go Ask Alice. I'll re-read it until my copy falls apart because, even if it's all lies, it's a great story. And I reckon that still counts for something. How about you?

I can't stop buying books. It's a sickness. I would rather buy books than food (and in fact this week, I did). The only thing I'd rather buy than books is shampoo, and that's only because of my borderline OCD obsession with freshly-washed hair.

I always have a new book to read and I never get through my TBR pile. It's constantly growing, like a triffid. And like a triffid, it will probably cause me to go blind one day.

As it stands, my TBR pile currently contains the following:

Blood and Chocolate - Annette Curtis Klause
Dante's Girl - Natasha Rhodes
Traitor to the Blood - Barb & JC Hendee
Heir to the Shadows - Anne Bishop
Eye of Heaven - Marjorie M Liu
Sleeping with the Fishes - MaryJanice Davidson
The Summoner - Gail Z Martin
Touch the Dark - Karen Chance (actually I've started this once and abandoned it out of sheer boredom, but it's getting such good reviews elsewhere I feel compelled to try again.)

What's everyone else reading at the moment?