Exploits of a Booklicker

Not so long ago, this may have happened.

I was sitting at a desk with a colleague. A woman nearby began licking a book with great enthusiasm.

Lick lick lick.

Then she’d hold it away from her and squint at it, assessing.

We were so thunderstruck that neither of us did anything.

Lick lick lick. 

Finally it was enough. Enough licking, I mean. She frowned at the book, which was now very wet. She scrubbed the open book furiously on her leg.

Shortly afterwards, a librarian was heard to say to another librarian, from whose collection the book had come, “Someone was seen licking this book.”

He did not know how to respond. So it goes.

Update: To clarify, the book was open. The inner pages were being licked, not the covers.