Mmm...Books: A Meme for The Bibliophage in All of Us

I got tagged by Laziest Girl with this, and I'm afraid I'm going to do a horrid job at actually answering these questions. Let's press on anyway.

How many books have you owned?

I have no idea whatsoever. More than I should. I have spent far too much over the years buying books. I've finally broken the habit and simply adopted an online list at the library of what I want to read next. Currently my "to read" list stands at 40 books.

What was the last book you bought?

Also a tough one since I stopped buying books a few months ago. If I had to guess, I would say that the last book was one for my book club, which means probably My Antonia by Willa Cather.

What was the last book you read?

Let's see. My reading time has been severely hampered recently (I suppose that makes me a malnourished bibliophage, and I'm not too happy about that), so the last book I read would have to be one of the following (sorry, I don't keep a book calendar so I'm not sure what I finished when):

Blankets, an Illustrated Novel by Craig Thompson

The first two volumes (Preludes & Nocturnes, The Doll's House) in the Sandman graphic novel series by Neil Gaiman (You can tell when my time for reading is limited, because I read a lot more graphic novels)

The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo

Almost done with High Fidelity now, but I suppose that doesn't count yet, does it?

What are five books that have meant a lot to you?

This is the most difficult for me, because we all know how I feel about putting anything very personal on my blog. So that I can actually finish writing this in a reasonable period of time, I'm just going with three. Here we go, in no particular order, but with at least some explanation for each book.

1. 2,201 Fascinating Facts: I received this book when I was quite young. As the title implies it is a book filled with all sorts of amazing bits of trivia. (Only as I grew older did I realize that like all sources of information, it is not always correct.) This book set me on the path to become The Fount of Useless Information you all know and love. I read it over and over and over, until the binding broke and the pages began falling out in clumps like the hair of an underweight contestant on Survivor.

2. Devil in The Details: I've already reviewed this book on the blog. Not only did this book make me laugh hysterically, it also made me feel like I was not so alone in having to deal with the obsessive thoughts and behaviors that threaten to take over my life. See, this is the type of thing I was trying to avoid talking about.

3. Life of Pi: This was the first modern fiction book in quite sometime to really please me. I loved that it could be read and enjoyed on many levels. On the surface, it is a story of a teenage Indian boy in a life boat. Deeper down, it is the story of internal struggle and the potential duality of one's self. Deeper still, it is a story of truth and fiction and the if/when there is a difference.

Tagging....

Invisible Lizard because with a degree in Lit, the lizard has to be able to a better job than I did.

Malibu Librarian because he's, you know, a librarian.

Until later...