A Book Meme
My fellow bibliophile Landismom tagged me with this. If you’re inclined, feel free to play along.
Total number of books I own:
I have no idea. Enough that the idea of moving them again continually foils any wild fantasies I have about moving to a new beige box. Imagine bookcases in every room (yes, even the kitchen) overflowing with books. That’s about half of what I own. The other half is in my parents’ basement. I blame Scholastic.
Last book I read:
The Shifting Sands by Emily Rodda. It’s number 4 in the Deltora Quest series, which is a fantasy quest series for the 4th grade set. Scholastic sent it to me in my giant box o’ books, and I wanted to check it out to see if Diva Girl would like it. Plus, I like to keep up on what’s going on in the Kid Lit world, and not just because I have kids. I enjoy the genre, and I find that many, many amazing writers are working for the teen and younger set.
Last book I bought:
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I’ve been hearing good things about these books for a few years now but hadn’t gotten around to buying them. When I saw the bookstore had started charging the American price, I figured it would take a sting out of the twenty dollar pay cut I took when I cashed my last iVillage cheque.
5 Meaningful Books
Define “meaningful.” I mean, that’s a pretty broad description. Are we talking “changed your life meaningful”? Personally meaningful? Socially meaningful? Dead White Guys meaningful? I don’t know. So I hereby change this to: Five Books That I Would Happily Read Again and Be Able To Find More To Them Than The Last Time I Read Them. Which is much more verbose, but too bad.
The Wheel Of Time Series by Robert Jordan. I’ve read these several times. And each time I do, I am staggered by his scope and vision. There are so many nuanaces to this series; a throwaway sentence in book 3 can become a major plot point in book 10. The man gave new definition to the term Epic Fantasy.
The Dark Tower by Stephen King. It was worth the 30 years it took for him to finish them. They are quite possibly his crowning achievement and do a brilliant job showcasing exactly what he’s capable of. The ending of this series wasn’t pat, trite, expected, or predictable, yet neither was it unsatisfying. It’s left me coming back and thinking over the series as a whole, the themes, and the story long after I finished reading it.
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. There’s a reason why we still teach this in school. Atticus Finch’s fight to be a good man is as important and relevant today as it was back in the 50’s when this was published. We can tell kids about racism, and how and why it’s wrong until we’re blue in the face, but we will never have the same impact on student perceptions as this novel.
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. I’m an English teacher; you knew this was going to make the list. The reason is twofold: 1) Yeah, the man pretty much created slang, colloquialism, and pop culture for us. b) They’re just good stories.
The Bible. Is it a history text? An epic fantasy? A series of allegorical fables? I don’t know. But I do know that it’s quite probably had more impact on the shape of our society and our world events than any other book in the world. And if that’s not the definition of meaningful, I don’t know what is.
Comment by landismom
Thanks for playing along!
I’m (pleasantly) surprised at how often To Kill a Mockingbird is showing up on all these lists.
Posted on November 11, 2007 at 10:44 pm
Comment by bubandpie
A Robert Jordan fan! My husband is a big fantasy buff, but he hates Jordan. (Hates him in the sense of “buys and reads all his books and then complains about them a lot.) I think the substance of his complaint is that Jordan keeps spinning out the series with books that don’t advance the plot at all, probably for cynical motives.
Posted on November 12, 2007 at 9:39 am