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Kampusch, who read extracts from the book in front of some 300 people in a Vienna bookshop Thursday evening, described how as a 10-year-old she was a great fan of TV police series.
And from her underground prison, a tiny cellar measuring just five square metres (53 square feet) in the house of her captor Wolfgang Priklopil in Strasshof, a quiet, leafy suburb of Vienna, she would fantasize about how the police were doing everything they could to find and save her, using DNA tracing and items of her clothing.
"But the police were doing nothing of the sort. They apologised to Priklopil and went away again without taking a closer look at his car or his house", she said.
Just days after she disappeared, officers interviewed Priklopil, inspecting the very car he had used to kidnap her and his home, but even when he could not provide an alibi they apparently did not become suspicious or question him more closely.
Kampusch also complained police had treated her like a criminal when she finally escaped in 2006. Crouching terrified in the garden of a neighbouring house in case Priklopil should see her, officers ordered her to "stay where you are and put your hands in the air".
"That wasn't how I had imagined my first taste of freedom would be. Standing by a hedge with my arms in the air like a criminal, I explained to the police who I was", she wrote.
She even "got the impression that they were peeved that I had managed to free myself", Kampusch continued. "In this case, they weren't my rescuers, but the people who had failed (to find me) all these years."
Kampusch described how she cried on learning that Priklopil, 44, had killed himself by throwing himself under a train on the day she escaped.
"With my escape, I hadn't only freed myself of my tormentor. I'd also lost someone who was inevitably very close to me", she said.
Kampusch told of Priklopil's "sick love", saying "the man who beat me, locked me in his cellar and let me almost starve to death, wanted to be cuddled".
Priklopil "wanted to have someone for whom he was the most important being in the whole world. He seemed not to know any other way of doing this but by kidnapping a shy 10-year-old girl", Kampusch said.
Her ambiguous feelings towards her captor fuelled speculation that she sympathised with him and was even protecting possible accomplices.
Asked by the moderator at Thursday's reading why she often sought to give her kidnapper a human face despite the physical and mental abuse she suffered over eight and a half years, Kampusch said in a quiet voice: "It was already depressing enough (in the cellar)."
"Hate (towards my kidnapper) would have killed me", she added.
Kampusch meanwhile rejected any suggestion in her book that Priklopil had not planned and carried out his crime on his own.
"It seems easier for the authorities to believe in a huge conspiracy behind such a crime than to have to admit that they had overlooked a harmless-looking criminal who acted alone all this time."
Kampusch harbours no fond feelings for her kidnapper, describing him frequently as a paranoid control freak who hated women and was likely anorexic.
She described the violent and brutal physical and mental abuse he subjected her to in her "psychological prison".
"August 23, 2005: At least 60 blows to the face; 10-15 blows to the head, inducing nausea; 70 knee-kicks to the coccyx."
Priklopil forced Kampusch to be his slave and shaved her head so that she would not be recognised on the very rare occasions later on when she was allowed to leave her prison.
He also starved her.
"I was just skin and bones. I had black and blue spots on my white calfs. I don't know whether they were caused by starvation or the long periods without light, they were like the markings on a corpse."
Kampusch also told of her attempts to commit suicide, but remained tight-lipped throughout the book on any possible sexual abuse, saying, "I want to preserve a last tiny corner of privacy."
Kampusch said she wrote the book, which officially went on sale on Wednesday with an initial run of 50,000 copies, to "free herself".
She was due to attend another promotional event for her book on Sunday in London.
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And from her underground prison, a tiny cellar measuring just five square metres (53 square feet) in the house of her captor Wolfgang Priklopil in Strasshof, a quiet, leafy suburb of Vienna, she would fantasize about how the police were doing everything they could to find and save her, using DNA tracing and items of her clothing.
"But the police were doing nothing of the sort. They apologised to Priklopil and went away again without taking a closer look at his car or his house", she said.
Just days after she disappeared, officers interviewed Priklopil, inspecting the very car he had used to kidnap her and his home, but even when he could not provide an alibi they apparently did not become suspicious or question him more closely.
Kampusch also complained police had treated her like a criminal when she finally escaped in 2006. Crouching terrified in the garden of a neighbouring house in case Priklopil should see her, officers ordered her to "stay where you are and put your hands in the air".
"That wasn't how I had imagined my first taste of freedom would be. Standing by a hedge with my arms in the air like a criminal, I explained to the police who I was", she wrote.
She even "got the impression that they were peeved that I had managed to free myself", Kampusch continued. "In this case, they weren't my rescuers, but the people who had failed (to find me) all these years."
Kampusch described how she cried on learning that Priklopil, 44, had killed himself by throwing himself under a train on the day she escaped.
"With my escape, I hadn't only freed myself of my tormentor. I'd also lost someone who was inevitably very close to me", she said.
Kampusch told of Priklopil's "sick love", saying "the man who beat me, locked me in his cellar and let me almost starve to death, wanted to be cuddled".
Priklopil "wanted to have someone for whom he was the most important being in the whole world. He seemed not to know any other way of doing this but by kidnapping a shy 10-year-old girl", Kampusch said.
Her ambiguous feelings towards her captor fuelled speculation that she sympathised with him and was even protecting possible accomplices.
Asked by the moderator at Thursday's reading why she often sought to give her kidnapper a human face despite the physical and mental abuse she suffered over eight and a half years, Kampusch said in a quiet voice: "It was already depressing enough (in the cellar)."
"Hate (towards my kidnapper) would have killed me", she added.
Kampusch meanwhile rejected any suggestion in her book that Priklopil had not planned and carried out his crime on his own.
"It seems easier for the authorities to believe in a huge conspiracy behind such a crime than to have to admit that they had overlooked a harmless-looking criminal who acted alone all this time."
Kampusch harbours no fond feelings for her kidnapper, describing him frequently as a paranoid control freak who hated women and was likely anorexic.
She described the violent and brutal physical and mental abuse he subjected her to in her "psychological prison".
"August 23, 2005: At least 60 blows to the face; 10-15 blows to the head, inducing nausea; 70 knee-kicks to the coccyx."
Priklopil forced Kampusch to be his slave and shaved her head so that she would not be recognised on the very rare occasions later on when she was allowed to leave her prison.
He also starved her.
"I was just skin and bones. I had black and blue spots on my white calfs. I don't know whether they were caused by starvation or the long periods without light, they were like the markings on a corpse."
Kampusch also told of her attempts to commit suicide, but remained tight-lipped throughout the book on any possible sexual abuse, saying, "I want to preserve a last tiny corner of privacy."
Kampusch said she wrote the book, which officially went on sale on Wednesday with an initial run of 50,000 copies, to "free herself".
She was due to attend another promotional event for her book on Sunday in London.
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