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Book meme, from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
padawan_alli and myras_girls:
1)Total number of books owned?
This morning I counted: 500. That's not counting literary journals or cookbooks (I forgot about those) or all the books I still have at my mom's house. It does, however, include several books that my mom left at my place or sent me after she'd read it, so maybe it evens out.
2) The last book I bought?
Last week I bought The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber (in hardback on the discount rack at Harvard Book Store for $4) and The Rape Of The Nile: Tomb Robbers, Tourists, and Archaeologists in Egypt by Brian Fagan (also at Harvard Book Store--it just looked good). Oh, and I also got Lady in Gil by Rebecca Bradley from amazon. Don't know which I did last.
3) The last book I read?
*checks memories*... that would be Tales of the Slayers vol. 3. But I also started reading The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead by Max Brooks, which I bought for Jorn last week.
4) 5 books that mean a lot to me?
Oh man... I'll try to mix it up a little, so I'm not just listing the same five books I always list. Hmm...
- Redwall, by Brian Jacques. This is the only book I remember my mom reading to me after I was old enough to read stuff for myself. We got it from the library and read some before bed every night, and we kept forgetting so we had to renew it a bunch of times, but it was worth it.
- The Sword of Shannara, by Terry Brooks, was the first "grownup" book I read by myself. I was in fifth grade, and we had it in hardback. I hauled that thing around for about a year until I finished it. It's like 1000 pages. I felt very accomplished.
- Taliesin, by Stephen R. Lawhead. I was still pretty young when I read this series, middle school maybe, and it really touched me. At one point I was drawing little pictures of the characters on index cards, at which point my mom said I was weird so I stopped. These books made me cry.
- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston was the only required reading book I ever really liked in high school. I had always loved to read but had never been interested in "literature", you know? Thinking back on it, I'm surprised my Catholic high school had us read this one, even in an honors english class, but thank goodness they did. This was probably the start of me being interested in lit and in women's studies, before I knew there was such a thing as women's studies.
and...
- The City in Which I Love You, by Li-Young Lee. Just an incredibly good collection of poetry. It's his second book, and since then his style has gotten a lot less concrete, a lot more esoteric, while his first book is intensely personal and grounded. (Not that his current style isn't intensely personal--you could almost argue that the dreamscape-like poems are in fact more personal than the ones rooted in actual real life experience. But I digress.) The City in Which I Love You, as his second book, is a perfect blend of these two styles. It was one of the first (maybe THE first) book of modern poetry I'd read. I was a freshman in college and was so incredibly influenced by this. I read it and thought, wow, people are doing that! Right now today! And I wanted to do that too.
I like that this meme did not ask me my favorite books of all time, which I think most of you know. My favorite books of all time are clearly all important to me, but this meme just asks for five books that mean a lot to me, ANY five, and so that's what you've got here. I could have listed so many more. Here, though, are just a few honorable mentions:
- Angels in America (both parts), by Tony Kushner
- One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- The Dogs of Babel, by Carolyn Parkhurst
- The Magician's Assistant, by Ann Patchett
I'm leaving off question #5, which is the "tag five other people to do this meme" question. Some of you will do it (I'm guessing Emily, John, maybe Annie, maybe Ebeth, maybe Liz), and some of you won't, which is perfectly fine.
padawan_alli and myras_girls:1)Total number of books owned?
This morning I counted: 500. That's not counting literary journals or cookbooks (I forgot about those) or all the books I still have at my mom's house. It does, however, include several books that my mom left at my place or sent me after she'd read it, so maybe it evens out.
2) The last book I bought?
Last week I bought The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber (in hardback on the discount rack at Harvard Book Store for $4) and The Rape Of The Nile: Tomb Robbers, Tourists, and Archaeologists in Egypt by Brian Fagan (also at Harvard Book Store--it just looked good). Oh, and I also got Lady in Gil by Rebecca Bradley from amazon. Don't know which I did last.
3) The last book I read?
*checks memories*... that would be Tales of the Slayers vol. 3. But I also started reading The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead by Max Brooks, which I bought for Jorn last week.
4) 5 books that mean a lot to me?
Oh man... I'll try to mix it up a little, so I'm not just listing the same five books I always list. Hmm...
- Redwall, by Brian Jacques. This is the only book I remember my mom reading to me after I was old enough to read stuff for myself. We got it from the library and read some before bed every night, and we kept forgetting so we had to renew it a bunch of times, but it was worth it.
- The Sword of Shannara, by Terry Brooks, was the first "grownup" book I read by myself. I was in fifth grade, and we had it in hardback. I hauled that thing around for about a year until I finished it. It's like 1000 pages. I felt very accomplished.
- Taliesin, by Stephen R. Lawhead. I was still pretty young when I read this series, middle school maybe, and it really touched me. At one point I was drawing little pictures of the characters on index cards, at which point my mom said I was weird so I stopped. These books made me cry.
- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston was the only required reading book I ever really liked in high school. I had always loved to read but had never been interested in "literature", you know? Thinking back on it, I'm surprised my Catholic high school had us read this one, even in an honors english class, but thank goodness they did. This was probably the start of me being interested in lit and in women's studies, before I knew there was such a thing as women's studies.
and...
- The City in Which I Love You, by Li-Young Lee. Just an incredibly good collection of poetry. It's his second book, and since then his style has gotten a lot less concrete, a lot more esoteric, while his first book is intensely personal and grounded. (Not that his current style isn't intensely personal--you could almost argue that the dreamscape-like poems are in fact more personal than the ones rooted in actual real life experience. But I digress.) The City in Which I Love You, as his second book, is a perfect blend of these two styles. It was one of the first (maybe THE first) book of modern poetry I'd read. I was a freshman in college and was so incredibly influenced by this. I read it and thought, wow, people are doing that! Right now today! And I wanted to do that too.
I like that this meme did not ask me my favorite books of all time, which I think most of you know. My favorite books of all time are clearly all important to me, but this meme just asks for five books that mean a lot to me, ANY five, and so that's what you've got here. I could have listed so many more. Here, though, are just a few honorable mentions:
- Angels in America (both parts), by Tony Kushner
- One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- The Dogs of Babel, by Carolyn Parkhurst
- The Magician's Assistant, by Ann Patchett
I'm leaving off question #5, which is the "tag five other people to do this meme" question. Some of you will do it (I'm guessing Emily, John, maybe Annie, maybe Ebeth, maybe Liz), and some of you won't, which is perfectly fine.
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no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 03:14 pm (UTC)From:-It's certainly one of the few "assigned" books I've kept over the years.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 04:09 pm (UTC)From:Some required reading that I enjoyed in high school: Cat's Cradle (Vonnegut), A Prayer for Owen Meany (Irving), and Sophie's World (can't remember). All excellent and well worth it.
Required reading I hated in high school:For Whom The Bell Tolls (Hemmingway), Watership Down (Adams), and Dandelion Wine (Bradbury). I don't know why I didn't like all of them, but I just didn't. I think I couldn't get into them.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 04:27 pm (UTC)From:Other required readings I liked: Bridge to Terebithia (Katharine Paterson), The Glass Menagerie (Tennessee Williams), Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury), Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes).
Required reading I hated: Black Boy (Richard Wright), Great Expectations (Dickens), Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte). I can't remember any others that I absolutely abhorred besides these. I liked Watership Down, though, and didn't even have to read it for school.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 04:56 pm (UTC)From:Loved this one! I read it because it was on my friend's required reading list. :D
I have an interesting history with Fahrenheit 451. I hated it the first time I read it, but then loved it the second time. The first time I was 11 and the second 14--I suspect that the age difference helped. I really like it now, though.
I liked Watership Down, though, and didn't even have to read it for school.
I know I'm in the minority for my dislike of this book. I don't know why I didn't like it, but it was probably something like I would have rather been reading something else. I'm tempted to give it a second chance because I know so many people who like it.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 05:21 pm (UTC)From:That Quai-Gon icon is Teh Hottt.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 06:26 pm (UTC)From: