Bet you didn't see this one coming! Okey-dokey, then - my answers to the meme:
Total number of books owned: Couldn't say, but if we include comic books we're certainly approaching thousands.
Last book bought: Two, actually - Nick Hornby's Songbook (my wife requested I read this to her in weekly installments while she makes the Sunday night pizza), and Tijuana Straights by Kem Nunn.
Last book read: Barring unforeseen interruption, tonight I will finish The Watch by Dennis Danvers.
Five books that mean a lot to me (I'll be cheating a bit, here):
The Deptford Trilogy, by Robertson Davies (I own a single-bound copy). Reading this book in my mid-20s had a more profoundly subversive effect on me than my voracious reading of the Beat Canon. Re-reading it this last year yielded new surprises, including Davies' neat skewering of any sort of nationalistic fervor that can grip a person during heated discussions. Davies' art was never quite so accomplished after this - but it had no need to be.
Moon Palace by Paul Auster. Previous blog here.
Blue Sky Dream: A Memoir of America's Fall From Grace by David Beers. No book does a better job of articulating GenX angst - and you're getting this from an unwavering fan of Douglas Coupland.
Tapping The Source by Kem Nunn. Bikers, surfers, drug-dealers, a mysterious occultic sect ... man, did I get a kick out of this book! Ten years before I read TTS, the last book that tickled me so was Woody Guthrie's Bound For Glory.
The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy. In this case, I'm referring to a specific copy of that book. A very dear friend of mine, when she heard I was a McCarthy fan, procured a limited signed edition for me. Priceless.
Five people to be memed: well ... I invite any one of the "Cobbers" to pick it up voluntarily. But I'm confident I can go ahead and tag Scott without incurring his pique.
Mr. WP, thanks for taking me off the hook. The etiquette of memes is beyond me. What is appreciated when received may not be appreciated when given. Passing on a meme may strike some as an unwelcome burden, so I've shyed away from forwarding the work.
ReplyDeleteGlad you mention Mr.'s Davies & Coupland. Love their stuff. And Moon Palace? You've mentioned that book before and I'll get on it...shortly.
...couldn't pass up the Hornby reference. I've read Songbook to my ever-loving wife, while we were in our bed having our read before bedtime time. Even played the cd along with it to mood it up. Must have been my unispired reading; she usually dozed off in mid-story. She did LOVE How to be Good quite a bit and is now trying to figure out how an announced movie of it will be made.
ReplyDeleteOh no, no pique whatsoever :) only a warning that I'll need to mull a bit. The one downside to my delightfully fast-paced, downtown media office gig is that the constant multi-tasking leaves me far too stupid to respond with the care these questions deserve. So, in short, later...
ReplyDeleteDV - re: Hornby, the proposed reading arrangement would never work in bed. She'd be gone in seconds. Pizza-making is definitely required.
ReplyDeleteScott - thanks for being a good sport!
Nice blog, see you on internet.
ReplyDeleteJalberto, :)