I’ve had a crush on author Alain de Botton for a while, now. It started when I read his Essays in Love and found myself wishing that I was the woman he had met and quickly began rhapsodizing about. When I read A Week at the Airport, I day dreamed that he and I met on a flight to wherever, and we struck up a conversation when he noticed me reading his book...

But it’s time for old Alain to move over and make room for my newest crush: Mark Haddon.

I’d picked up Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time some time ago, and then abandoned it after about 30 pages. But, I picked up A Spot of Bother recently, and couldn’t put it down! Haddon paints such a realistic portrait of the Hall family – you’d swear that you were a fly on the wall, watching as their pre-wedding drama plays out.

Now I’m fantasizing that I take a trip to the UK and stop in at a little pub where I meet a man who asks for my phone number. I have nothing to write it down on, and so I end up writing it on a page that I tear out of – you guessed it – Mark Haddon’s book. The man asks me if I like the book, and I start to gush about it:

“…such a realistic portrait of the Hall family – you’d swear that you were a fly on the wall…”

I realize that he’s smiling. I flip to the back of the book and check out the picture – it’s him! It’s actually Mark Haddon!!!

Now there’s a story! A story so romantic, in fact, that Mark (we’re on a first name basis, now) writes his next book about just such a chance encounter. And dedicates it to me.

Unleash your inner geek and get your author crush(es) on, at the Calgary Public Library!