Spring Fling Confessional by Melissa Clark

I have always had a love affair with the library and I am so grateful to live near the beautiful Santa Monica Library, where I spend lots of time reading, writing, researching, and planning.  

Recently, the library extended it's services to e-readers, so I can download a book to my iPad with a click of a button, all from the comforts of home. This is where, in early March, my fling behavior began. 

While browsing e-books from my couch I came across "The End of Normal" by Stephanie Madoff Mack - the daughter-in-law of Bernie Madoff. The summary offered drama, intrigue, opulence and death. What was I going to do? Ignore it? 

I read the entire memoir in a matter of hours and the best part? No one had to know!

I fished around for some more free books of that nature and found "What Remains" by Carole Radziwill about her marriage to Kennedy cousin Anthony Radziwill. It had drama, intrigue, opulence and death. What was I going to do? Ignore it? 

This lead me down a Kennedy reading path, including but not limited to "Fairy Tale Interrupted by RoseMarie Terenzio", "Come to the Edge" by Christina Haag, and "Once Upon a Secret" by Mimi Alford, all about the various John Kennedy's. 

Like a true addict, I combed the library for more memoirs and found "Both of Us" by Ryan O'Neal, chronicling his life with Farrah Fawcett, and then "My Journey with Farrah" by Alana Stewart about their search for alternative cures for Farrah's cancer, and how could I NOT read "A Paper Life" by Tatum O'Neal to hear her take on her father? 

By now it should be clear that I am a true memoir slut. But before you judge too harshly, please know that I have "Infinite Jest" by David Foster Wallace on my nightstand and am halfway through it, and I am a literature professor when I'm not writing, and I'm always espousing the necessities of reading good novels. I swear.

Oh, but these books with their drama, intrigue, opulence and death, make for some damn good reading. And there you have it. My Spring Fling Confessional. I know you have your own book confessions. Won't you share in the comments section, if only to make a girl feel less alone?

Melissa Clark is the author of "Swimming Upstream, Slowly" and "Imperfect", (on Kindle-sale for 2.99 this week) and has an essay in the new anthology "The Cassoulet Saved Our Marriage". She teaches writing and literature at Otis College of Art and Design. Visit her at Connections Clark.