Fluff has tagged me.
Total number of books I own.
Jordin says he estimated a number of years ago we owned 5K paperbacks and 2K hardbacks. We've bought more since. And got rid of some, but not as many as we've bought. Yes, we do have a book problem.
The last book I bought
I bought 3 from Uncle Hugo's at Wiscon but I can only remember 2: Kage Baker's The Anvil of the World (in pb -- it's great), and Charlaine Harris' Dead as a Doornail.
The last book I read
Well yesterday I finished Seven Dials by Anne Perry and read John Scalzi's Old Man's War. I have Mortal Love by Elizabeth Hand in progress, but it irritates me.
Five books that mean a lot to me
1. Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien -- uh well um
2. King James version of The Bible -- I'm no longer a believer but this book shaped me in numerous known and unknown ways. And the language is fantastic.
3. Dangerous Visions ed. by Harlan Ellison -- Blew my mind wide open when I read it at 16 and helped me to know and to articulate just how much and in what ways I wanted my life to differ from what I saw around me. I re-read it less than I used to but I still do re-read it.
4. Star Surgeon by Alan Nourse - For being symbolically important as the first actual sf book I ever read. It does not hold up to re-reading as an adult. Sigh.
5. A long ago biography of Anne Boleyn whose title I do not remember but which started me on the never ending fascination of history and biography.
Ah, the Nourse Star Surgeon (not to be confused with the James White of the same title, of course). Also one of my favorite books when I was at the Golden Age (12), and I agree it doesn't hold up.
I do like the image of Puget Sound as an aquatic animal hospital ward, though.
Posted by: Christopher Davis | June 06, 2005 at 10:06 AM
I believe I was 10 or 11 when I read it. Someone in class gave an oral bookreport on a science fiction book and I thought it sounded interesting. It had been a medical oriented sf book so that's what I picked out from the sf shelf at the library. It had enormous impact on me at the time. I re-read it a lot. I had remembered it with great fondness and then someone reissued it in pb. Sigh.
I had been softened up by reading a series about a character call Rick Brant. Rick's dad was a scientist and Rick and his pal Scotty were always inventing some scientific gadget to help them solve mysteries and get out of fixes. I think they were Stratemeyer syndicate books but the author name used was John Blaine. It's amazing how few people know this series. Well amazing to me. I have a nearly complete collection of them now and do still enjoy rereading one of them occasionally.
MKK
Posted by: Mary Kay | June 06, 2005 at 10:55 AM