Books meme
May. 16th, 2005 11:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowscastSo, I got tagged by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mofic, and I actually saw it, so I guess I'll do this thang.
(The sad truth is, for the past few months or so I've barely been skimming teensy pieces of my flist every week or so. I feel kinda bad about not reading what you're all up to, but I wouldn't have time to do both that and write, and the writing's more important to me right now.)
Anyway.
1) How many books do you have?
Hard to say exactly, no time to count for real. Because I'm a math geek, I count the number of books on a couple typical-looking shelves, find that it's about 40 per shelf, and then estimate by the number of shelves (14). So I'll say about 560 books. Now, keeping in mind that I've moved seven times in the past seven years (three of which moves were distances of over 1000 km), that represents a pretty serious committment. Books are frikkin' heavy.
But I love them so.
2) What is the last book you bought?
Um...(runs to shelf to check)...oh, that one. Your Perfect Right, by Robert Alberti and Michael Emmons. It's a self-help book about how to become more assertive. It is the first self-help book I've ever bought, and I haven't exactly read it yet, though I have done the self-test and confirmed that yep, I'm a doormat. Oh well.
3) What is the last book you read?
The last one I finished was A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin. It's the third in a wonderful fantasy series. The one I'm working on right now is a translation of Justine by the Marquis de Sade.
4) Five books that mean a lot to me.
mofic used Roman numerals for numbering the books, and so will I!
I. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Not only was it my introduction to the wonderful world of British humour, not only did my ability to quote from it give me geek cred for many years (does that go down now that there's a wide-release movie?), but reading it was a big bonding thing with my father.
Q: What's so unpleasant about being drunk? A: Ask a glass of water!
II. Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. It really shaped my understanding of art, narrative, and (duh) comics. Plus the author is my uncle, which impresses the hell out of my geekier friends. *g*
III. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey. I think this book (which I read when I was, hm, about 12?) was the one that got me into fantasy, which continues to be my favourite genre.
IV. Awakening the Buddha Within by Lama Surya Das. It wasn't the first book I read about Buddhism, but it was the first one that I was able to really connect with my life in a visceral way.
V. Where the Pavement Ends by Erika Warmbrunn: "One woman's bicycle trip through Mongolia, China and Vietnam." It gives me tingles just thinking about it. It's an awesome story of adventure, and the clincher is: she's not so different from me. When I read her story, I realize: the only thing stopping me from doing this is that I haven't decided to do it. I long for adventure, but I'm kinda timid. On the other hand, I've done lesser adventures, like that time I biked across my own province to volunteer on an organic farm for a week. I'm still relatively young. Maybe someday I'll be posting from an internet cafe in Ulaan Batur!
5) Um, I really haven't been following along. I have no idea who hasn't done this yet. So I'll pick 5 people regardless, and if they've already done it, or don't want to, so be it! No worries.
dodyskin, rubywisp, romanyg, flurblewig, nihilistbear
mofic, and I actually saw it, so I guess I'll do this thang.(The sad truth is, for the past few months or so I've barely been skimming teensy pieces of my flist every week or so. I feel kinda bad about not reading what you're all up to, but I wouldn't have time to do both that and write, and the writing's more important to me right now.)
Anyway.
1) How many books do you have?
Hard to say exactly, no time to count for real. Because I'm a math geek, I count the number of books on a couple typical-looking shelves, find that it's about 40 per shelf, and then estimate by the number of shelves (14). So I'll say about 560 books. Now, keeping in mind that I've moved seven times in the past seven years (three of which moves were distances of over 1000 km), that represents a pretty serious committment. Books are frikkin' heavy.
But I love them so.
2) What is the last book you bought?
Um...(runs to shelf to check)...oh, that one. Your Perfect Right, by Robert Alberti and Michael Emmons. It's a self-help book about how to become more assertive. It is the first self-help book I've ever bought, and I haven't exactly read it yet, though I have done the self-test and confirmed that yep, I'm a doormat. Oh well.
3) What is the last book you read?
The last one I finished was A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin. It's the third in a wonderful fantasy series. The one I'm working on right now is a translation of Justine by the Marquis de Sade.
4) Five books that mean a lot to me.
mofic used Roman numerals for numbering the books, and so will I!I. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Not only was it my introduction to the wonderful world of British humour, not only did my ability to quote from it give me geek cred for many years (does that go down now that there's a wide-release movie?), but reading it was a big bonding thing with my father.
Q: What's so unpleasant about being drunk? A: Ask a glass of water!
II. Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. It really shaped my understanding of art, narrative, and (duh) comics. Plus the author is my uncle, which impresses the hell out of my geekier friends. *g*
III. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey. I think this book (which I read when I was, hm, about 12?) was the one that got me into fantasy, which continues to be my favourite genre.
IV. Awakening the Buddha Within by Lama Surya Das. It wasn't the first book I read about Buddhism, but it was the first one that I was able to really connect with my life in a visceral way.
V. Where the Pavement Ends by Erika Warmbrunn: "One woman's bicycle trip through Mongolia, China and Vietnam." It gives me tingles just thinking about it. It's an awesome story of adventure, and the clincher is: she's not so different from me. When I read her story, I realize: the only thing stopping me from doing this is that I haven't decided to do it. I long for adventure, but I'm kinda timid. On the other hand, I've done lesser adventures, like that time I biked across my own province to volunteer on an organic farm for a week. I'm still relatively young. Maybe someday I'll be posting from an internet cafe in Ulaan Batur!
5) Um, I really haven't been following along. I have no idea who hasn't done this yet. So I'll pick 5 people regardless, and if they've already done it, or don't want to, so be it! No worries.
dodyskin, rubywisp, romanyg, flurblewig, nihilistbear
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-05-17 12:44 pm (UTC)I can understand some of that for Hitchhiker's, though... I'm kind of antsy about going to see it.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-05-17 02:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-05-18 08:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-05-18 11:03 am (UTC)I do like these memes because they end up revealing more about the writer than personal entries do. There's a more of a tendency to reveal, I think, through this strict format than in a free-form entry.
Dragonflight! Yay!
*goes off to look at own shelves*