As library staff, are always trying to get to know our customers, their preferences, reading interests, habits and so on. Often, we find the best way to get to know the people we're serving is by allowing them to get to know more about us. And so, the "Staff Confessions" series was born - welcome!

In this post we want to explore reading spaces. We all know our favourite places to read (ahem, THE LIBRARY) - but life is not ideal, and book lovers are persistent, which led us to ask our staff members the following:

What is the strangest place you've ever found yourself reading a book? 

"I recently was reading a book in a tattoo shop in Toronto while getting a tattoo done. That's one of the stranger places I've found myself reading." - Samantha

"Bathtub..." - Jennifer

"In the car. I was actually listening to an audiobook, which isn’t all that strange - until the story took a sad turn and there I was crying alone in my car." - Julia

"As a kid, I would read in the car (which is odd because I suffered from motion sickness). Now I can't do it - I get queasy right away." - Donna

"The passport office!" June 

"On a bus in Italy" -Carolyn

"The strangest place I've ever found (I continue to do) myself reading a book is the closet in my bedroom. My grand parents and my parents are avid readers. I remember reading under the moonlight in Sri Lanka as we went through difficult times without power. But that didn't stop us from reading. To get away from my kids and husband, I read in my closet as it is the last place they would find me in. My daughter is now 20 and my son is 14 and they still don't know my secret place." - Sujatha

As expected, where we choose to read seems to tell us a lot about the reader, in a way that is very different from the things we can gather by knowing what someone chooses to read (or not read). Our next post will explore the latter.

Until then, it's your turn: What is the strangest place you've ever found yourself reading?