These memes seem to be popping up all over the place. I was tagged by a needlework friend on my other blog to answer these questions, but they seemed fitting to post here as well.
1. Total number of books I've owned.
Whew. I am afraid to even think how many books I have now, let alone how many I previously owned as well. Well over a thousand I think, and that could be a conservative number. I have stacks in my bedroom, and a small room (which would make a nice study) is also filled with books. I may have to count sometime!
2. Last book I bought.
Well... I just went to the bookstore after work yesterday. I bought several...
The Garden Angel by Mindy Friddle, The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer, Breath and Bones by Susann Cokal, Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya, The Bay of Noon by Shirley Hazzard, and two nonfictions; Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett and Don't Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller. (I had a gift certificate...in my defense...though it is my last one...so not much more profligate spending I am afraid...)--sorry too lazy to add Amazon links...
3. The last book I read.
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (so-so-- reasonably entertaining though a bit of a disappointment).
4. 5 books that mean a lot to me.
This is a hard one...books that "changed" me, or made me feel good? Okay, not in any partiular order...
1. On the Road by Jack Kerouac-I read this after college and after I had just returned home from living a year abroad. It was one of those books that sort of separates my youth from when I started considering myself an adult. Even though I had been away from home and all alone, it maybe verbalized for me being home, but being a separate entity from what I had been before--a daughter/sister, you get the drift...
2. Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres-I just consider this one very fine work of literature that I will read again and again (forget the movie, by the way!).
3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen-Another book that I just find to be very excellent literature. Another one I will always enjoying reading again and again. Jane Austen can certainly turn a good sentence, you know!
4. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith-I love this book! Sweet and romantic and another example of a bad movie made from a great book.
5. Howards End and A Room With a View, by E.M. Forster-because has has been one of my favorite authors for a long time now!
It is not easy choosing only five!! Of course this list may change at any time given my mood--but these are all books I love! Too bad we can't list more!
By the way...any French speakers happening to read this today? I am curious what the postcard says. (In French it reads: Le canon peut tonner, la vague peut mugir, L'Angelus de la Mer rappelle un souvenir) She looks like she is standing in a church--I wonder what book she is reading. The back of the postcard is dated 1909 and is filled with flower-y script in tiny writing that I can't begin to make out...